The story of the moon; a description of the scenery of the lunar world as it would appear to a visitor spending a month on the moon

Front matter

\Y SS \\ AS \ .

SSO

THE STORY OF THE MOON

Preface

Although this story of the Moon is intended for popular reading, it is based strictly upon scientific facts. But there is still much mystery about the Moon, notwithstanding that it is inecomparably the nearest to us of all those ‘‘other worlds’’ that we gaze at in the sky. Generations of astronomers have not succeeded in arriving at a settled opinion concerning the nature and meaning of some of the things visible to us in the lunar world. It is generally agreed that the Moon’s surface is, and for perhaps ages has been, almost changeless; yet there certainly was a time when tremendous, catastrophic events occurred there, whose marks are among the most spectacularly impressive of all celestial objects revealed by the telescope.

Since the Moon is now generally regarded as having had its birth by separation from the Earth a peculiar human interest attaches to everything concerning it. Its scenery is not only strangely picturesque, but it is filled with romantic suggestion as well. Yet, as far as I am aware, this is the first book that has been devoted to an intimate description of the world of the Moon, with its wonderful mountains, walled valleys, plains, ancient ‘‘sea beds,’’?’ mysterious ‘‘ray’’ systems, grand cirques, and gigantic craters, together with its curious shades and colorings suggestive of con-

SANAARWN HS

KEY TO KEY CHART

MARIA (SEAS) AND MOUNTAIN CHAINS

H. Oceanus Procellarum I. Mare Nubium

J. Mare Humorum

X. The Apennines Y. The Caucasus

ETC,

Aristarchus Eratosthenes Archimedes Aristillus Bianchini Plato Aristotle Eudoxus Atlas Endymion Cleomenes Proclus Pliny Menelaus Manilius

A. Mare Crisium

B. Mare Fecunditatis

C. Mare Tranquillitatis

D. Mare Nectaris

E. Mare Serenitatis

F. Mare Imbrium Z. The Alps G. Mare Frigoris

KEY TO FORMATIONS, CRATERS,

. Langrenus 17. Purbach 33. . Vendelinus 18. Arzachel 34. . Patavius 19. Ptolemzus 35. . Furnerius 20. Maginus 36. . Theophilus 21. Clavius 37. . Cyrillus 22. Tycho 38. . Catharina 23. Longomontanus 39. . Fracastorius 24. Schiller 40. . Piceolimini 25. Schickhard 41. . Maurolycus 26. Gassendi 42. . Stofler 27. Bullialdus 43, . Aliacensis 28. Grimaldi 44, . Albategnius 29. Pitatus 45. . Hipparechus 30. Cichus 46. . Walther 31. Kepler 47. . Regiomontanus 32. Copernicus 48,

Sulpicius Gallus

PREFACE tinuing life despite the terrible marks left by its ‘age of fire.’’

With regard to the nature of the so-called ‘‘volcanoes’’ on the Moon, constituting one of its most picturesque and characteristic features, it may be well to add to what is said in the text the recent opinion of Professor J. W. Gregory, the English geologist, who calls these formidable formations on the Moon ‘‘vuleanoids,’’ and regards them as having been created by subsidences due to the fact that the Moon cooled faster than the Earth, and thus early acquired a thicker crust less easily folded than that of the Earth, so that the contraction of the cooling interior resulted in vertical instead of horizontal movements of the crust. He also suggests that the Moon’s condition ‘‘forecasts the state of the Harth at some future time when its relief will be due almost entirely to vertical movements, as the crumpling of belts of the crust will have ceased, and when horsts and sunklands due to faulting, and valleys due to subsidence instead of erosion will be the dominant features in the topography.’’

Here, too, for the first time, a complete series of photographs of lunar scenery, taken at one of the world’s greatest observatories, and representing, in regular order, the changing appearance of the Moon through all its phases from New Moon, through First Quarter to Full Moon, and back

Vil

PREFACE again through Last Quarter to Old Moon, is presented in connection with a detailed description of these marvelous objects, constituting, as it were, an illustrated ‘‘Baedecker”’ of the Moon.

Taking the hint from a delightful French classic of the eighteenth century, Fontenelle’s Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes, the author has cast the story into the form of conversations between an astronomer and a lady whose curiosity concerning that charming globe so near by in the sky has been awakened by the fascination of a moonlit evening. But this literary form is suffered in no way to detract from the scientific accuracy of the statements made.

The author acknowledges a deep indebtedness to Professor Edwin B. Frost, the Director of the Yerkes Observatory, for permission to use the superb series of lunar photographs made at that observatory. Those showing the Moon on successive evenings were taken with the 12-inch telescope by Mr. James Wallace, who employed a color-filter screen especially prepared for that instrument. The larger scale photographs were taken with the great 40-inch refractor of the Yerkes Observatory by Professor G. W. Ritchey. They are among the most admirable products of astronomical photography.

Garrett P. Serviss

Tenafly, New Jersey.

viii

Contents

PAGE

INTRODUCTION . See 2. ee fl ee ee 3 I.—NrEw Moon to First Quarter é : 3 ee ess, II.—First QuaRTER TO Futn Moon. : é é 5 RS III.—Fuitt Moon to Oip Moon : ; 2 : : a 131 IV.—GReEAT SCENES ON THE Moon . 3 : : F 7 Lei APPENDIX . : : : c é ; : 5 ; 4 . 239

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS