Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-08-01
An Interesting Study
of the Skies
BY GARRETT p. sERyIss

B." Nooi SNeuluS aIter painting
not summer day what sight is moro
reIresnlnS than that of the full
moon TRANQUILITY shedding its silverv
rays down upon the reposing earth
while the lambent stars glow softly
through the transparent curtains of
the night? 1t is no wonder that m
the poetry of all nations the moon
is inquired as goddess, or that IN
the folklore of every people she
Is the subject of the most romantic
legends and of superstitions that lose
their mischief-if any they have
in their beauty.
Who is she that looketh forth.
fair as the moon?" sings Solomon
in his love-song.
Il beheld the moon walking in
brightness" admiringly recounts
Job, the philosopher of the
desert.
And while 7 gaze thy mild and
placid light
Sheds soft calm upon my trou-
bled breast"
ESQ writes a modern poetess).
night,
That in thy orb the wretched
may have rest;
The sufferers of the earth perhans
may go,
Released by death, to thy benlg-
nant sphere,
And the sad children of despair
and woe
Forget in thee their cup of sor-
row here"
The astronomer knows that all
this beauty of the moon, awaken
ing so many charming thoughts
and longings, is due to the enchant-
ment of distance. The moon is the
only world in the sky whose fea-
lures can be seen with the naked
eye, and thus seen they show no
ruggedness and give no hint of the
terrible spectacles of planetary dis
aster ana death which stare at the
oeholder in telescope views.
Seen by the unaided eye out OF
the shadow of the earth,, gilded by
sunlight in the far depths of space,
the bare lunar skull is rounded into
the semblance of a face modulated
with delicately graduated shades
and graceful in its outlines An
opera glass view but heightens the
resplendence of the impression
made by the full moon upon the
naked eye. The sight recalls an
ancient cameo cut by some great
artist out of a precious stone. But
exchange the opera glass for a tele-
scope and all is at once different.
The spectacle still possesses It's
elements of beauty, but now they
are submerged in the impression OF
death-dealing violence that over
whelms the mind as once it over
whelmed that little world. The fas-
cination of the scene is akin to that
which one feels in looking from an
icy peak over the snow-choked and
hte-aoandoned landscapes of the in
ner and higher Alps.
Now, curiously enough. the sano
telescope magnifying power which
reveals the true aspect of the moon
and banishes its seeming lifelike
charm, is just that which brings
the planet Mars virtually near
enough to the observer to give It
the appearance of a most idylllc
world, appealing at once to the
imagination and the desire for
scientific investigation. It is not
improbable that if telescopes could
be constructed capable of magnify
ing Mars 22,500 diameters, which
would bring it, when nearest the
earth, to the same apparent dis
tance that a power of $50 diameters
brings the moon, we should at once
be able to settle all the puzzling
and captivating questions that have
arisen concerning the habitability OF
that planet, and the wonderful do
ings of it's inhabitants, because then
we might see plainly, and decide be-
yond controversy, what the real
state of Mars is.
To return to moon superstitions
which may not all be absolutely
without foundation.-I have a letter
from Gary, Ind, dwelling upon the
question of the influence of moon
light falling upon the face of a
sleeper. This, like the popular saws
concerning the influence of the
moon on plants. etc. is an exceed
ingly ancient superstition. found IN
all parts of the world. Indeed, the
word 'lunacy" describing a particu-
lar kind of insanity, is derived from
the old Roman name for the moon,
Luna.
The antiquity of this notion is
sufficiently attested by a passage IN
the CXX1st Psalm, which reads:
THE sun shall not smite thee by
day nor the moon by night" We
accept this evidence of an early
recognition of the danger of sun
strike, but the progress of science
has not yet produced a conviction
that the moon, too, can "smite. .
whatever the experience of indiyld-
uals may have induced them to be-