Great Moon Hoax

[[File:Great-Moon-Hoax-1835-New-York-Sun-lithograph-298px.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Lithograph of supposed moon people from ''The Sun'' in 1835]]
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{{hatnote|Not to be confused with the [[Moon landing hoax]] [[conspiracy theory]].}}

The '''Great Moon Hoax''', also known as the '''Great Moon Hoax of 1835''', was a series of six articles published in ''{{wpl|The Sun (New York)|''The Sun''|,}}'' a [[New York]] newspaper unrelated to a much later [[The Sun|British tabloid]], about the supposed discovery of life and even a civilization on the [[Moon]], falsely attributed to Sir {{wpl|John Herschel||,}} one of the most famed [[astronomer]]s of those times.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vida |first1=István Kornél |title=The "Great Moon Hoax" of 1835 |journal=Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies |date=2012 |volume=18 |issue=1/2 |pages=431–441 }}</ref> It was split into a series of six articles, that began publication on August 25, 1835.

==Claims==
According to such articles, Herschel had seen from the {{wpl|Cape of Good Hope}} in [[South Africa]] using a very large telescope of new principles (which is utter [[bollocks|Bullshit]] for anyone who has some knowledge of optics)<ref group=note>While there are ways to combine several small telescopes to {{wpl|Very Large Telescope|create the light-gathering capacity of a much larger one||,}} the [[technology]] required is far beyond what was available in 1830.</ref> animals on the Moon that included bison, [[goat]]s, [[unicorn]]s,<ref group=note>No mention at all of the sighting of a [https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Princess_Luna dark unicorn with deep blue mane and tail], or a [https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Eilistraee black-skinned elven goddess] that loves to dance [[Nudity|skyclad]], however.</ref> bipedal tail-less beavers, and 
Batman
 [[bat]]-like winged humanoids ("Vespertilio-homo"),<ref>{{cite web |author=István Kornél Vida |title=The "Great Moon Hoax" of 1835 |date=2012 |website=www.jstor.org|publisher=Centre for Arts, Humanities and Sciences (CAHS) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43488485?read-now=1&seq=4#page_scan_tab_contents|page=434}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Dave Kindy |title=Great Moon Hoax of 1835 convinced the world of extraterrestrial life |date=2022 |publisher=WashingtonPost |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/08/14/great-moon-hoax-chorizo}}</ref> supplemented in 1836 by "Vespertiliones" or the bat-men, who built temples. There were also reported to be [[tree]]s, oceans, and beaches. The author of the narrative was ostensibly Dr. Andrew Grant, the travelling companion and amanuensis of Sir John Herschel, who was however just a fictitious person. Eventually, the authors announced that the observations had been terminated by the destruction of the telescope, by means of the sun causing the lens to act as a "burning glass", setting fire to the observatory.<ref name="AsimovGunn1975">{{cite book |last1=Gunn |first1=James E. |author-link1=James Gunn (author) |last2=Asimov |first2=Isaac |author-link2=Isaac Asimov |title=Alternate worlds: the illustrated history of science fiction |date=1975 |publisher=Prentice-Hall |location=Englewood Cliffs, NJ |isbn=0-89104-049-8 |page=51}}</ref>

==Authorship==
The reporter Richard Adams Locke, who worked for ''The Sun'' in 1835, has been considered to be the author of this article claiming this in a letter in 1840 to another newspaper.<ref>{{Cite news |title=They Formed A Pair |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xaZOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hkIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6760,5192821 |newspaper=The Deseret Weekly |publisher=Deseret News Publishing Company |location=Salt Lake City, UT |date=May 13, 1893 |page=665 |access-date=June 27, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/locke_richard_adams |title=Locke, Richard Adams |first1=John |last1=Clute |first2=John |last2=Eggeling |website=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |access-date=November 3, 2018}}</ref> His purposes were both to boost the sales of the newspaper that he worked for with a sensational story and to ridicule some of the weirdest astronomical theories that had been published by then, such as the claims of the Bavarian astronomer {{wpl|Franz von Gruithuisen||,}} who had claimed to have observed various shades of color on the lunar surface, correlated by him with climate and vegetation zones plus lines and geometrical shapes, which he felt indicated the existence of walls, roads, fortifications, and cities<ref group=note>It seems the hunt for [[Lunar anomalies]] has been a long one, even if 19<sup>th</sup> century astronomers could be excused.</ref> or especially those of Reverend {{wpl|Thomas Dick (scientist)|Thomas Dick|,}} who claimed that the [[Solar System]] contained 21,891,974,404,480 (21.9 trillion) inhabitants and the Moon alone 4,200,000,000 inhabitants,<ref>{{cite book |last=Dick |first=Thomas |title=Celestial Scenery; or, The Wonders of the Planetary System Displayed: Illustrating the Perfections of Deity and a Plurality of Worlds |url=https://archive.org/download/celestialscener00dick/celestialscener00dick.pdf |access-date=August 18, 2013 |orig-year=First published London 1837; New York 1838 |date=1845 |publisher=Edward C. Biddle |location=Philadelphia |pages=276–277}}</ref> ''far'' more than the total world population in 1835.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World-population-1750-2015-and-un-projection-until-2100.png World population between 1750 and 2015, and UN projection until 2100].</ref> It took several weeks to show the article was a [[hoax]], and even then no retraction was published.<ref>Falk, Doris V. "[http://www.eapoe.org/pstudies/ps1970/p1972207.htm Thomas Low Nichols, Poe, and the 'Balloon Hoax'"] collected in ''Poe Studies'', vol. V, no. 2. December 1972. p. 48.</ref>

Herschel was initially amused by the hoax, noting that his own real observations could never be as exciting, even if he got annoyed when he had to answer questions from people who believed the article was serious.

{{wpl|Edgar Allan Poe||,}} whose editor at the time was Richard Adams Locke, claimed the story was a [[plagiarism]] of his earlier work "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall". He would later publish "The Balloon-Hoax" in the same newspaper.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-great-moon-hoax|title="The Great Moon Hoax" is published in the "New York Sun"|website=HISTORY.com}}</ref>

==Science!==
In order to see such details on the Moon from Earth, one would need a ''ludicrously huge'' telescope, that would dwarf any telescope built to date, even those that as noted above use several smaller ones combined to have the light-gathering capacities of a larger one.<ref>[http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/45-our-solar-system/the-moon/the-moon-landings/122-are-there-telescopes-that-can-see-the-flag-and-lunar-rover-on-the-moon-beginner Are there telescopes that can see the flag and lunar rover on the Moon?]</ref> Of course, as is currently known, the Moon has no [[water]] that is not locked on minerals or as ice in shadowed craters at the poles and very little atmosphere to speak of. This means no oceans or beaches, and no life — much less trees, animals, or especially lifeforms able to build things — with the only ones alive in the Moon to date having been little more than the astronauts of the Apollo program when they went to 
moon
walk there, and maybe {{wpl|Reports of Streptococcus mitis on the Moon|some bacteria}} in an abandoned [[NASA]] lander.

It has also been proposed the Moon could have been habitable for 500 million years after its formation<ref>[https://www.astronomy.com/science/life-on-the-moon-maybe-long-ago/ Life on the Moon? Maybe long ago]</ref>, maybe even with liquid water on its surface, thanks to extensive vulcanism present in such times forming a [[Atmosphere_of_the_Moon#The_former_atmosphere_of_the_Moon|relatively dense atmosphere]] that was stripped away by the solar wind once such vulcanism tapered off (as happened in [[Mars]] too), even if any lunar life had it managed to appear is unlikely to have progressed beyond the microbial stage in such short time frame.

==Notes==
{{reflist|2|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Fake news]]
[[Category:Hoaxes]]
[[Category:Moon]]

Categories: Fake news, Hoaxes, Moon