76 Star anfr Meatbet Gossip 



What disquisitions have been written, what geo- 

 metrical figures drawn, what bewildering mathe- 

 matical calculations have been made to explain this 

 optical effect ! And how many more geometrical 

 figures have been drawn and bewildering mathematical 

 calculations made to prove that the explanation could 

 not possibly be correct ! 



For my part, I think all we can be positive about in 

 regard to this horizon moon is that it looks a start- 

 lingly big moon to the human eye, and that to the 

 camera it is quite an ordinary moon, as Mr. Mac- 

 namara has clearly and ingeniously proved. The big- 

 ness lies in the human eye. Hence, it seems to me 

 possible that as the quality of vision varies, one 

 observer may be sensible of a horizontal enlargement 

 which to another does not exist, or which may exist in 

 a lesser or a greater degree. 



THE INVERTED MOON 



There is in the moon a fancied figure which bears an 

 extraordinary resemblance to a French poodle sitting 

 on its haunches. A young Western Australian wrote 

 to Mr. J. G. Talbot Hassell to say that when the 

 Poodle was looked at from that part of the world it 

 was upside down. 



" Last night (May 1st, 1912)," the letter ran, " when 

 the full moon rose the Poodle was standing on its 

 head, and when we got up this morning in brilliant 

 moonlight it was lying on its back with its legs pointing 

 downwards, thus showing, or seeming to show, that 

 the moon gradually turns round. By the time it gets 

 to England you see it rise with the Poodle standing on 



