[meteorite-list] Fwd: The Dark Side.. Oops!

[MexicoDoug]

Bernd cited the great Astronomer William Herschel in 1787:

"April 19, 1787. I perceive three volcanoes in different places of
 the  d a r k   s i d e  of the new moon."

Interesting word selection!
 
In 1780, it was said about people's continuing misconceptions regarding 
the lighted portions of the moon:
 
"It has often been a matter of surprise to me, when viewing the moon 
through a good telescope, in the company of persons not accustomed to 
such observations, that wilst the cavities and eminences of the moon's 
surface appeared to me marked out with the utmost certainty by their 
light and shades, my companions generally conceived it to be a plain 
surface of various degrees of brightness.  The reason I suppose to be 
this; the astronomer knows from the moon's situation with respect to 
the sun, and even from the figure of its enlightened part, precisely in 
what direction the light falls on its surface, and therefore judges 
rightly of its hills and vallies [sic], from their different degrees of 
light, according to those rules which are imperceptably formed in the 
mind, and confirmed by long experience. 
 
But a person unacquainted with astronomy knows nothing of the direction 
of the sun's light on the moon, nor does he attend to the moon's 
globular figure, an is besides perhaps possessed with a notion of it 
being self-luminous; no wonder then that the same object has a very 
different effect on his imagination.  It seems to be those rules of 
judging, which we begin to form in our earliest infancy, which we set 
aside, reestablish, alter, correct and confirm, and at length rely on 
with the utmost confidence, even without knowing that we do so, or that 
we have any such rules: It is these rules, of such infinite general use 
to us, that sometimes mislead us on new and extraordinary occasions, 
and particularly in the case before us."
 
Ref:, Transactions APS, David Rittenhouse, of course
 
Six month's after observing an incredible bolide and two months after 
discussing said bolide with Ben Franklin with whom he hatched first the 
specific correct cosmic origin of meteors and bolides ... which was 
correct.
 
Kindest wishes
Doug
 



 
-----Original Message-----
From: Bernd V. Pauli <bernd.pauli at paulinet.de>
To: meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thu, Oct 27, 2011 5:03 pm
Subject: [meteorite-list] The Dark Side.. Oops!


Phil wrote:

"Do people still say 'dark side of the moon'
when referring to the far side of the moon?


Cometary Scars on the Moon? (S&T, January 1988, pp. 11-12):

Certain mysterious whitish blotches on the lunar surface may be
the scars of comet impacts, perhaps less than 100 million years old.
Known as lunar swirls, the markings appear primarily on the Moon's
f a r   s i d e 
 Although more examples of these enigmatic features
exist on the Moon's  f a r  s i d e, only Reiner Gamma is easily
available for Earth-based study.

New Measures of the Moon (Sky & Tel, July 1995, pp. 32-33):

Zuber's team has combined Clementine's topography and gravity data to
estimate the thickness of the Moon's crust, confirming earlier hints 
that
it is thinner on the near side (60 km on average) than on the  f a r  s 
i d e
(68 km). But within some impact basins the crust has thinned 
dramatically.
It is thickest (nearly 120 km) on the  f a r  s i d e  between the South
Pole-Aitken and proposed Procellarum basins.

The Moon's Atmosphere (Sky & Telescope, June 1989, p. 589):

While instruments found argon, neon, and helium on the  d a r k  s i d 
e  and
the possibility of methane and ammonia at sunrise, the composition of 
the
daytime exosphere remained a mystery.

Lunar Volcanoes - William Herschel observed
lunar lights (Astronomy Now, April 1999, p. 58):

"April 19, 1787. I perceive three volcanoes in different places of
 the  d a r k   s i d e  of the new moon."

Best wishes,

Bernd


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