MOONLIGHT.

This piece comes from The Stars in ther Courses, first published in 1931. Jean had
the great ability to make astronomy interesting to nonscientist, and he wrote many
famous books on this subject. He was born in 1877 and educated at Cambridge
University. He died in 1946.

We that that the moon is about 239,000 miles away from the earth, to within a few
thousand miles, it’s distance always remains the same. Yet a very little observation
shows that the moon in not standing still. Its distance from the earth remains the
same, but its direction continually changes. We find that it is travelling in a circle —
or very nearly a circle— round the earth, going completely round once a month, or,
more exactly, 27 1/3 days. It is our nearest neighbor in space, and like ourselves it
is kept tied to the earth by the earth’s gravitational pull.

Except for the sun, the moon looks the biggest object in the sky. Actually it is one
of the smallest, and only looks so big because it is so near to us. Its diameter is only
2,160 miles, or a little more than a quarter of the diameter of the earth.

Once a month, or, more exactly, once every 29 ½ at the time we call «full moon»,
its whole disc looks bright. At other times only part of it appears bright, and we
always find that this is which faces towards the sun, while the part facing away
from the sun appears dark. Artist could make their pictures better if they kept this
in mind —only those parts of the moon which are lighted up by the sun are bright.
This shows that the moon gives no light of its own. It merely reflects the light of the
sun, like a huge mirror hung in the sky.

Yet the dark part of the moon’s surface is not absolutely black, it is just light
enough for us to be able to see its outline, so that we speak of seeing «the old moon
in the new moon’s arms». The light by which we see the old moon does not come
from the sun, but from the earth. We know well how the surface of the sea or snow,
or even of a wet road, may reflect uncomfortably much of the sun’s light on to our
faces. In the same way the surface of the whole earth can reflect enough of the sun’s
light on to the face of the moon for us to be able to see the parts of it which would
otherwise be dark.

If there were any inhabitants of the moon, they would see the earth reflecting the
light of the sun, again like a huge mirror hung in the sky. They would speak of
earthlight just as we speak of moonlight. «The old moon in the new moon’s arms»
is nothing but a part of the moon’s surface on which it is night, lighted up by
earthlight. In the same way, the lunar inhabitants would occasionally see part of
our earth in full sunlight, and the rest lighted only by moonlight; they might call
this «the old earth in the new earth’s arms».

EXERCISES.

Comprehension.

1. Is the moon half a million, or about a quarter of a million, miles away?

2. Does the moon’s distance from us change much or little?
3. How long does the moon take to go around the earth?
4. What keeps the moon near the earth?
5. Why does the moon seem big to us?
6. How do we know that the moon has no light of its own, but only reflects the
light of the sun?
7. What other light falls on the moon besides sunlight?
8. How do we ourselves experience light reflected from the earth’s surface?
9. What would a man standing on the moon see in the sky besides the sun and
the stars?

Language.
1. Fill each space with a word from the list in its proper form: observation;
gravitation; diameter; quarter; disc; reflect; mirror; outline; inhabitant;
lunar.
a) The — of the earth prevents buildings from flying off into space.
b) The artist drew only an — and not a complete picture.
c) To find out a — of this number we must divide it by four.
d) The — is less than a third of the circumference.
e) The — deserts look very dusty, and they may be like the deserts of the earth.
f) She looked at herself in the — and was not pleased with her appearance.
g) Mirrors — light.
h) The moon’s yellow — rose slowly over the hill.
i) We are all — of the earth.
j) Modern telescopes make the — of Mars easier than it used to be.

2. Write the following in words.

a) 239,000;
b) 27 1/3;
c) 2,160
d) 29 ½

3. What are the nouns of the following words?

a) Observe.
b) Reflect.
c) Black.
d) Inhabit.
e) Lunar.

4. Make the following negative:

a) He thinks there are some lunar inhabitants.

b) Its distance always remains the same.
c) The water reflected the sunlight into our faces.
d) A hug mirror is hung above us in the sky.
e) The earth lights up the whole moon.