The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1907-05-10
4 TRIP TO THE MOON.
Making a Landing on Luna In
Scientific Imagination.
SUNRISE IN PLATO VALLEY.
its Mighty Clutches as Black ab Jet,
While the Surrounding Towering
Luna Alps Are Abaze With Light
Wonderful Changes of Color.

While the Surrounding lowering
Luna Alps Are AbIaze With Light
Wonderful Changes of Color.
Expert opinion about the moon has
undergone a remarkable change within
recent years. For long time all as
Economical books taught their readers
that the earth's satellite was totally
dead-
wreck. a Stag, a cinder, drifting in
space,
Without it's crew of fools.
But lately, the point of view being
changed, the lunar world brightens up,
and even astronomers are beginning to
talk of the probability that there Is
life on it. In view of this change OF
opinion. let us summon TyndalPs sci
entific Imagination and visit the moon,
looking at it close at hand in the light
which the latest investigations throw
upon it from distance. If an astron-
omer were offered a trip to the moon
and asked where he would choose to
land first, it is probable that he would
| reply, "In Plato, if you please" Now,
Plato is a huge circular mountain
ringed valley which can be seen from
| the earth with a good opera glass, ly-
ing in lunar north latitude so degrees,
and it excites the astronomers cur1os-
ity because of what he has dimly seen
| going on within it.
Let us, then, approach Plato as II
dropping down upon the moon with
| balloon AS we draw near we hnd
| that the time of our arrival is that OF
lunar sunrise in the longitude Of Plato.
But the rising Of the sun on the moon
| is a very slow process. 1t takes the
solar orb seven days to pass upward
from the horizon to the noon line. The
consequence is that, hanging over Pla-
! to in our aerial conveyance, we find
the whole Of the great valley under us,
about sixty miles broad and a mile
deep. buried in the blackeSt night.
| But the peaks on it's western border
are already cleaning in the sunlight,
and the surface of the moon to the
west of those mountains is all illu-
mined with the morning beams. The
| lunar Alps are ablaZe with light, while
the shadows filling their mighty gulch-
es and chas1ns are as black as jet. Far
| off along the southwestern horizon we
see the towering giants Of the lunar
| Caucasus and the lunar Apennines,
serrated ridge of flaming p1nnacles set
against a black sky. The sharpness Of
the division between day and night Is
amazing. 1t arises from the virtual
absence of air. There is no twilight
band between.
Presently a brilliant point flashes out
toward the east 1t looks like a fire
suddenly lighted in the midst of the
ocean Of night still covering most Of
the moons eastern hemisphere. 1t is a
conspicuous peak on the eastern side
of Plato's mountain ring, which has
just been reached by the rays of the
rising SUM- The magnifcence Of the
spectacle now gradually unfolded be-
meath us is beyond description. AS the
line of sunlight slowly creeps down
the precipices on the eastern border Of
the valley we begin to perceive the
broad, fiat floor emerging into visibill-
ty. Its central part has been dimly
visible for some time. Slowly the dark
ness in the valley retires westward as
the sun rises higher, and the great
plain at length lies fully displayed in
the morning light.
And now strange things occur. Won
derful changes of color take place in
the valley. These become more pro-
nounced as the slope Of the sunbeams
falling into the valley grows sleeper.
The entire floor Is checkered In a curt
GUS way with spots and areas Of vary
ing tint. By the middle Of the long
lunar forenoon the whole valley has
lost it's original neutral tone and has
become dull, spotty brown, with sug-
gestions of yellow. Prepared by anal
ogy, we are not much surprised when,
descending to the floor of Plato, we
find ourselves standing in the midst Of
rolling prairie, covered with fantas-
tic plants, slender, crowded, shaped
more capriciously than a mass Of Or
chids, and with flowers Of a strange,
unearthlike beauty already opening
where the sunbeams have rested lon
gest. There is no wind, not the slight
est breeze, no motion except the stir
Of the opening leaves and petals. 1t is
like the magic awakening Of the petri-
fed city Of the oriental legend
A touch, kiss, the charm Is snapped!
Yet, with all its singular beauty, this
lunar vegetation has for our eyes an
etiolated appearance, for it exists
where there is almost no atmosphere,
and that little of a mephitic nature,
and it has sprung into a brief life Of
scarcely two weeks duration, sudden
ly stimulated by the intense rays Of
sunlight which fall from the airless
heavens with telling effect. During the
night, which lasts more than a fort
night over the gr, ater part of the val
ley, the vegetation withers, shrinks.
turns black, subjected to fearful cold
that would destroy every spark of life
in a terrestrial plant. But these things
on the moon have grown amid an en-
vironment Of their own-an eternal
protest against the extinction of life
where the slightest means Of maintain
ing it remain.
But, cheered by the attractiveness Of
| the scene about us, we are tempted to
look for animal life. We wonder if we
shall not find strange insects inhabit-
ing these plants or odd little rodents
burrowing among their roots. Then we
remember that this is unlikely because
Of The nature of the extremely thin at
moSpherH, and, upon thinking Of this,