The Moon

The Moon

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Moon, by Thomas Gwyn Elger
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Title: The Moon A Full Description and Map of its Principal Physical
Features
Author: Thomas Gwyn Elger
Release Date: February 7, 2006 [EBook #17712]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
MOON ***

Produced by Steve Ridgway

THE MOON
A FULL DESCRIPTION AND MAP OF ITS PRINCIPAL
PHYSICAL FEATURES

BY
THOMAS GWYN ELGER, F.R.A.S.
DIRECTOR OF THE LUNAR SECTION OF THE BRITISH
ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION EX-PRESIDENT LIVERPOOL
ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
"Altri fiumi, altri laghi, altre campagne Sono la su che non son qui tra
noi, Altri piani, altre valli, altre montagne." ORLANDO FURIOSO,
Canto xxxii.
LONDON GEORGE PHILIP & SON, 32 FLEET STREET, E.C.
LIVERPOOL: 45 TO 51 SOUTH CASTLE STREET 1895
PREFACE
This book and the accompanying map is chiefly intended for the use of
lunar observers, but it is hoped it may be acceptable to many who,
though they cannot strictly be thus described, take a general interest in
astronomy.
The increasing number of those who possess astronomical telescopes,
and devote more or less of their leisure in following some particular
line of research, is shown by the great success in recent years of
societies, such as the British Astronomical Association with its several
branches, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and similar
institutions in various parts of the world. These societies are not only
doing much in popularising the sublimest of the sciences, but are the
means of developing and organising the capabilities of their members
by discouraging aimless and desultory observations, and by pointing
out how individual effort may be utilised and made of permanent value
in almost every department of astronomy.
The work of the astronomer, like that of the votary of almost every
other science, is becoming every year more and more specialised; and
among its manifold subdivisions, the study of the physical features of
the moon is undoubtedly increasing in popularity and importance. To

those who are pursuing such observations, it is believed that this book
will be a useful companion to the telescope, and convenient for
reference.
Great care has been taken in the preparation of the map, which, so far
as the positions of the various objects represented are concerned, is
based on the last edition of Beer and Madler's chart, and on the more
recent and much larger and elaborate map of Schmidt; while as regards
the shape and details of most of the formations, the author's drawings
and a large number of photographs have been utilised. Even on so
small a scale as eighteen inches to the moon's diameter, more detail
might have been inserted, but this, at the expense of distinctness, would
have detracted from the value of the map for handy reference in the
usually dim light of the observatory, without adding to its utility in
other ways. Every named formation is prominently shown; and most
other features of interest, including the principal rill-systems, are
represented, though, as regards these, no attempt is made to indicate all
their manifold details and ramifications, which, to do effectually, would
in very many instances require a map on a much larger scale than any
that has yet appeared.
The insertion of meridian lines and parallels of latitude at every ten
degrees, and the substitution of names for reference numbers, will add
to the usefulness of the map.
With respect to the text, a large proportion of the objects in the
Catalogue and in the Appendix have been observed and drawn by the
author many times during the last thirty years, and described in _The
Observatory_ and other publications. He has had, besides, the
advantage of consulting excellent sketches by Mr W.H. MAW,
F.R.A.S., Dr. SHELDON, F.R.A.S., Mr. A. MEE, F.R.A.S., Mr. G.P.
HALLOWES, F.R.A.S., Dr. SMART, F.R.A.S., Mr. T. GORDON,
F.R.A.S., Mr. G.T. DAVIS, Herr BRENNER, Herr KRIEGER, Mr. H.
CORDER, and other members of the British Astronomical Association.
Through the courtesy of Professor HOLDEN, Director of the Lick
Observatory, and M. PRINZ, of the Royal Observatory of Brussels,
many beautiful photographs and direct photographic enlargements have

been available, as have also the exquisite heliogravures received by the
author from Dr. L. WEINEK, Director of the Imperial Observatory of
Prague, and the admirable examples of the photographic work of MM.
PAUL and PROSPER HENRY of the Paris Observatory, which are
occasionally published in Knowledge. The numerous representations of
lunar objects which have appeared from time to time in that storehouse
of astronomical information, The English Mechanic, and the