Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/504

488 a semicircle of light projecting into the blackness of the still unilluminated plains around it. I should advise every reader to take advantage of any opportunity that may be presented to him to see Clavius with a powerful telescope when the sun is either rising or setting upon it. Neison has given a spirited description of the scene, as follows:

The sunrise on Clavius commences with the illumination of a few peaks on the western wall, but soon rapidly extends along the whole wall of Clavius, which then presents the appearance of a great double bay of the dark night-side of the moon penetrating so deep into the illuminated portion as to perceptibly blunt the southern horn to the naked eye. Within the dark bay some small, bright points soon appear—the summits of the great ring-plains within—followed shortly by similar light points near the center, due to peaks on the walls of the smaller ring-plains, these light islands gradually widening and forming delicate rings of light in the dark mass of shadow still enveloping the floor of Clavius. Far in the east then dimly appear a few scarcely perceptible points, rapidly widening into a thin bright line, the crest of the great southeastern wall of Clavius, the end being still lost far within the night-side of the moon. By the period the extreme summit of the lofty wall of Clavius on the east becomes distinct, fine streaks of light begin to extend across the dark mass of shadow on the interior of Clavius, from the light breaking through some of the passes on the west wall and illuminating the interior; and these streaks widen near the center and form illuminated spots on the floor, when both east and west it still lies deeply immersed in shadow, strongly contrasting with the now brightly-illuminated crest of the lofty east wall and the great circular broad rings of light formed by the small ring-plains within Clavius. The illumination of the interior of Clavius now proceeds rapidly, and forms a magnificent spectacle: the great brightly-illuminated ring-plains on the interior, with their floors still totally immersed in shadow; the immense steep line of cliffs on the east and southeast are now brilliantly illuminated, though the entire surface at their base is still immersed in the shades of night; and the great peaks on the west towering above the floor are thrown strongly into relief against the dark shadow beyond them.

Newton (12) is the deepest of the great crateriform chasms on the moon. Some of the peaks on its walls rise twenty-four thousand feet above the interior gulf. Its shadow, and those of its gigantic neighbors—for the moon is here crowded with colossal walls, peaks, and craters—may be seen breaking the line of sunlight below Clavius, in our third picture. I have just spoken of these great lunar formations as chasms. The word describes very well the appearance which some of them present when the line separating day and night on the moon falls across them, but the reader should not be led by it into an erroneous idea of their real character. Such formations as Newton, which is one hundred and forty miles long by seventy broad, may more accurately be described as vast depressed plains, generally containing peaks and craters, which are surrounded by a ring of steep mountains, or mountain-walls, that rise by successive ridges and terraces to a stupendous height.

The double chain of great crater-plains reaching half across the