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

Fri Oct 28 12:19:46 EDT 2011

Hi Mark, Bernd and Listers;

Yes !  The great naturalized Englishman W. Herschel obviously referred 
to the dark side of the moon being the side that was not illuminated 
facing the earth, and his word choice is perfectly accurate has nothing 
to do with the present confusion, but it is interesting to contemplate 
how the current confusion may have come about.

As for Rittenhouse, first known ATMer in the USA, Chladni's 
inspiration, son of Matthias Rittenhouse, a second generation American 
born of Westphalian* German (Rittenhausen) / Dutch heritage  - and the 
go-to guy for Ben Franklin when it came to instrument making:

His scientific connection to Herschel was strong - Herschel discovered 
Uranus and Rittenhouse was the first in the Americas to observe it less 
than two years later.  Back in those days, that meant you could 
calculate its position based on the orbital elements and were skilled 
with the telescope to find it.  Rittenhouse pointed his telescope at 
where he calculates it to be and it immediately observed it. He was 
shortly thereafter the source in the America to the "Almanacks" for 
publication of corrected orbital elements for the newly discovered 
planet.

On Rittenhouse and Herschel:

"Mr. Rittenhouse never possessed the means of acquiring such stupendous 
and costly telescopes, as those used by Herschel, for the purpose of 
exploring the heavens.  But the penetrating genius of our countryman 
seems to have contemplated, by anticipation, the actual existence of 
those sublime phenomena, some of which the vastly superior instruments 
of the Germano-Anglican Astronomer has since manifested; when, in 
language apparently prophetic, but certainly dictated by the most 
exalted pre-conceptions of the grandeur of celestial objects which were 
yet undiscovered, the American Philosopher observes, as he does in his 
Oration,---that "All yonder stars innumerable, with their dependencies, 
may perhaps compose but the leaf of a flower in the Creator's garden, 
or a single pillar in the immense building of the Divine 
Architect."Well might he exclaim, with rapturous ecstasy, after so 
beautiful a sublime reflection,---Here is ample provision made for the 
all-grasping mind of man!"

It will be evident to such as duly reflect on this subject, that those 
expectations which occupied the mind of Mr. Rittenhouse, so long since 
as the year of 1775---concerning the "amazing discoveries" which 
should, at some future period, be mad among the fixed stars, were not 
conjectures or vague hypotheses; but they were rational anticipations 
of realities, founded on the most acute observation and laborious 
research, as well as the profoundest philosophical judgment."

 From the biography of David Rittenhouse (1813); review by the second 
president of the USA, John Adams, sandwiched between Washington and 
Jefferson:

"Mrs. Adams reads it with great delight, and reads to me what she finds 
interesting, and that is, indeed, the whole book. I have not time to 
hear it all."

*The unofficial Westphalian anthem was written by a descended relative 
of David Rittenhouse, so in David Rittenhouse, Germany has been very 
"instrumental" in establishing science in the United States and played 
a role in the complete acceptance in the USA by science of the theory 
that meteorites were of cosmic origin; that they were specifically 
small objects that were orbiting the Sun independently which 
occasionally crossed orbital paths with the Earth.  It was the first 
time since Diogenes, that this was stated, although in Diogenes’ time 
the understanding of celestial mechanics was not yet mastered, and 
Rittenhouse’s conclusion was based on “rational anticipations of 
realities, founded on the most acute observation and laborious 
research, as well as the profoundest philosophical judgment”.

Kindest wishes
Doug

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Bowling <minador at yahoo.com>
To: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug at aim.com>; Meteorite-list 
<Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Fri, Oct 28, 2011 4:56 am
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Fwd: The Dark Side.. Oops!

Hi Doug, Bernd & all:

That is an interesting word choice (I was totally ignorant of that 
fellow too,
thanks Doug).  Here's another aspect I'm wondering about Herschel's 
comment.  I
didn't catch the "new moon" reference from when I read it years ago, up 
until I
read Doug's post, I had always imagined that he was describing a 
crescent or
quarter phase.  And that he was using "dark side" to refer to the
non-illuminated part of the nearside of the moon.  i.e. that he didn't 
see the
volcano's on the "daylight" side of the lunar hemisphere, but could 
only detect
the "volcanoes" on the non-illuminated side.  I can't remember for sure 
if his
full entry mentions how the manifestation he perceived changed as the 
moon
became more illuminated.

Could his use of "dark side" have meant to refer to the non-illuminated 
part of
the nearside of the moon?  Assuming that "new moon" was referring to 
1/4 moon or
less, which would display both light and darkness.  I had thought that 
the
telescopes he built and used would have been good enough in quality 
to have led
him to realize that the moon was a sphere and that the light/dark was 
caused by
the orientation of the sun to the moon.

I can only assume that in his day nomenclature was very loose and that 
"dark
side" could vary in meaning (i.e. the far side, or the nearside which 
is in
shadow).  Is this making sense, or am I up too late??  ;-)

Best regards,
Mark
----- Original Message -----
From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug at aim.com>
To: Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Cc:
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2011 5:27 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Fwd: The Dark Side.. Oops!

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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