Chapter XIII

THE MOON AS A WORLD: DAY AND NIGHT UPON ITS SURFACE. 155
Existence of Habitants on other Planets—Interest of the
Question—Conditions of Life—Absence of these from Moon—No
Air or Water and intense Heat and Cold—Possible Existence
of Protogerms of Life—A Day on the Moon
imagined—Instructiveness of the Realization—Length of
Lunar Day—No Dawn or Twilight—Sudden Appearance of
Light—Slowness of Sun in Rising—No Atmospheric
Tints—Blackness of Sky and Visibility of Stars and fainter
Luminosities at Noon-day—Appearance of the Earth as a
Stationary Moon—Its Phases—Eclipse of Sun by
Earth—Attendant Phenomena—Lunar Landscape—Height essential
to secure a Point of View—Sunrise on a Crater—Desolation
of Scene—No Vestige of Life—Colour of Volcanic Products—No
Atmospheric Perspective—Blackness of Shadows—Impressions
on other Senses than Sight—Heat of Sun untempered—Intense
Cold in Shade—Dead Silence—No Medium to conduct
Sound—Lunar Afternoon and Sunset—Night—The Earth a
Moon—Its Size, Rotation, and Features—Shadow of Moon upon
it—Lunar Night-Sky—Constellations—Comets and Planets—No
Visible Meteors—Bombardment by Dark Meteoric Masses—Lunar
Landscape by Night—Intensity of Cold