The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-10-03
Telescope Wonders OF the Moon.

When we view the moon with pow
crful telescope and see her extensive
plains and mountain chains her ex-
tensive shore lines and dry ocean beds,
thousands of volcanic craters and their
central cones. it is difficult to realize
that we are gazing into another world
brought by the powers Of the telescope,
that marvellous instrument, to dis
tance of few hundred miles, as it
were, almost within our grasp. Strange
as it may seem, we are more familiar
with her mountains than with those OF
our own world. On this side Of the
moon, though 24O,0 miles away,
there is not a mountain whose height
has not been measured, nor crater
whose diameter and depth is unknown.
The brevity of this paper forbids de-
tailment of the process resorted to ac-
complish so improbable feat, though
at some future time may revert to
the subject Of celestial measurements.
Save few chains Of mountains the
scenery of the moon is totally unlike
that of the earth.
The naked eye sees the moon fecked
with dark patches which by the exer-
,ise of fancy become "The Man in the
Moon" But, it is needless to say,
shere is no "man' there nor life of
any sort. The dark, naked eye por-
rions were, before the invention of the
telescope, looked upon as mares or
seas, and names then given them are
still retained, as, for instance, Mare
Nubium, Mare Crisium, Mare Tran
quillitatis, etc. But the telescope has
shown beyond doubt that they were
once ocean beds, with their shore
lines still plainly visible, which, when
the moon was young, were lashed by
her tidal waves, though r.w, on this
side at least, not a single drop Of wa
ter may be found. Because there. is
| 10 waste in nature, and because from
lack of contact with other bodies it's
water could not be conveyed away, the
question arises, Whittier has itgone :?
The moon in it's cooling from circum-
ference to center has absorbed it all,
and like fate awaits the earth itself
in the coming ages.
Her atmosphere, Zoo, has been ab-
sorbed, though she, doubtless, once
was thus enveloped. When our planet
too shall have cooled to its center, a
process slowly going on, it will have
| absorbed all of it's water and air and
will thirst for more. Though alike in
this, and in both being solid globes,
the earth and moon have little or
nothing else in common.
To her mountains we have given the
names of the mountain systems of our
world, as the Alps, the Apennines,
the Caucasus, etc., and their scenery
consists largely Of elevated rings sur
rounding deep cavities or craters Of
which the telescope reveals the exist.
enoe Of over one hundred thousand of
all sizes, from those Of few rods to
the largest (Shickard), 149 miles in
diameter, and, in depth, from those OF
few yards to the deepest Newton)
over four miles down. On all the
earth there is not true representa-
tive of lunar crater, the nearest ap-
proach being that of the Mauna Loa
volcano of the Sandwich Islands.
The largest of them have, like the
seas and mountains, been given names
and bear the cognomens of distin-
onished men of science. The moon,
indeed, seems to be a vast cemetery OF
dead philosophers. We find the
Archimides, Aristotle, Copernicus,
Gassendi, Herschel, Kepler, Newton,
Plato, Ptolemy, Tycho, etc: To de-
scribe even the greater ones would
transgress the space accorded me.
Tycho, bes6 seen when the moon is
full, is visible with an opera glass. 1t
is 49 miles in diameter and 81 miles
deep. From It's center rises conical
mountain as high as Mount Lowe:
These rings, so prominent feature Of
lunar scenery, are often surmounted
by cathedral spires or ''turrets'' some
times many thousand feet high, which
cast long, black. taperiag shadows on
the fat bottoms of the "craters. In
addition to the turrets, many small
craters or "craterlets,' with yawning
chasn1s between, are seen on the tops
of the rings.
Clavius is an enormous ring inclos-
ing 16, 500 square miles, in which are
several craters, from one of which
rises conical mountain, $4,000 feet
in perpendicular height.
The largest of them all, Shickard,
so large in fact, as almost to deserve
to be called an immense plain, is !49
miles in diameter, and surrounded
with circular wall, in places ten
thousand feet high: which incloses an
area of almost twenty thousand square
miles, to fill which three hundred
Lake Eries would be needed. So i'm
mense is it, that were a person to
stand at its center, his horizon would
be above the ring and he could not be
aware of his Imprisonment in well
10000 feet deep, but would seem to
himself to be standing on level
plain. On the fiat bottom of this ring
twenty-three craterlets have been
counted.
Aristarchus is the most brilliant OBJ
ject on the moon and may be seen on
the dark side before sunlight has
reached it. It was this that Sir Will
liam Herschel announced as volcano
in action.
One mountain peak near the moons
limb rears its lofty crest Al, 900 feet
above the valley below, but this is
less high than the highest mountain
of the earth, as the depth of the valley
must be deducted from its height.
Linne-this little crater has been
more discussed than any other, be-
cause it is thought to furnish at least
one instance of change. Some sixty
years ago it was described as being 81
miles in diameter, and so conspicuous
as to be used by astronomers rs funda-
mental points of the scenery Of the
moon. In 1866 Schmidt announced
that the crater appeared to be under q
cloud, and, since then, only an ex-
ceedingly small crater is just visible
where Lime was. This is the most
reliable evidence which can be cited
of change in any lunar object.-Prof
al. 1To.,,,S o,s, F,Lo