The Romance of the Heavens 33 



of part of its surface. In a sense such a telescope brings the 

 moon to within about fifty miles of us. We should see a city like 

 London as a dark, sprawling blotch on the globe. We could just 

 detect a Zeppelin or a Diplodocus as a moving speck against the 

 surface. But we find none of these things. It is true that a few 

 astronomers believe that they see signs of some sort of feeble life 

 or movement on the moon. Professor Pickering thinks that he 

 can trace some volcanic activity. He believes that there are areas 

 of vegetation, probably of a low order, and that the soil of the 

 moon may retain a certain amount of water in it. He speaks of a 

 very thin atmosphere, and of occasional light falls of snow. He 

 has succeeded in persuading some careful observers that there 

 probably are slight changes of some kind taking place on the 

 moon. 



But there are many things that point to absence of air on the 

 moon. Even the photographs we reproduce tell the seme story. 

 The edges of the shadows are all hard and black. If there had 

 been an appreciable atmosphere it would have scattered the sun's 

 light on to the edges and produced a gradual shading off such 

 as we see on the earth. This relative absence of air must give 

 rise to some surprising effects. There will be no sounds on the 

 moon, because sounds are merely air waves. Even a meteor 

 shattering itself to a violent end against the surface of the moon 

 would make no noise. Nor would it herald its coming by glow- 

 ing into a "shooting star," as it would on entering the earth's at- 

 mosphere. There will be no floating dust, no scent, no twilight, no 

 blue sky, no twinkling of the stars. The sky will be always black 

 and the stars will be clearly visible by day as by night. The sun's 

 wonderful corona, which no man on earth, even by seizing every 

 opportunity during eclipses, can hope to see for more than two 

 hours in all in a long lifetime, will be visible all day. So will the 

 great red flames of the sun. Of course, there will be no life, and 

 no landscape effects and scenery effects due to vegetation. 



The moon takes approximately twenty-seven of our days to 



VOL. I 3 



