Identifier: callofstarspopul00kipp (find matches)
Title: The call of the stars; a popular introduction to a knowledge of the starry skies with their romance and legend
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Kippax, John R. (John Robert), 1849-1922
Subjects: Stars Constellations Planets
Publisher: New York, London, G. P. Putnam's sons
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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ts of the Earth is that orb ofreverie and mystery, which gods Selene name, andmen, the Moon, Earths nearest neighbour in spaceand most faithful attendant. Owing to the variety ofits phases and the more rapid changes of its relativeposition in the sky, it holds a unique position in thestarry heavens, while in brightness it far outshines allthe planets and all the stars. To an observer on oneof the nearer planets the Earth and Moon must looknot unlike a beautiful double star, the Earth seemingfar brighter than Venus, and the Moon brighter thanJupiter. Furthermore, did lunarian inhabitants exist,the Earth would appear to them as a resplendent globe,from thirteen to fourteen times as large as the Moonappears to people on the Earth. The mean or average distance of the Moon from theEarth is 238,840 miles. Owing to the eccentricity of itsorbit (0.05) it is sometimes 252,972 miles away, andsometimes only 221,614. According to the latestmeasurements, the diameter of the Moon is 2163 miles, 332
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Paris Observatory Plate XXIV. The Moon at Nine Days (Image inverted as in astronomical telescopes) I The Moon 333 or rather more than one-quarter that of the Earth. Itsapparent diameter is about half a degree, or nearly thesame as that of the Sun, although it varies somewhat,owing to the influence of the Earths atmosphere. Ittravels eastward around the Earth in an orbit whosecircumference is about 1,500,680 miles, at an averagevelocity of 2290 miles an hour, and completes a circuitin 2) days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, and 11.15 seconds,which, as mentioned in the preceding chapter, consti-tutes a sidereal month, the average length of thecommon or synodical month being 29 days, 12 hours,44 minutes, and 2.86 seconds. Then, too, as the Moonmoves around the Earth, it appears to travel aroundthe sky among the stars, at the rate of about thirteendegrees a day. The mean density of the Moon is about three-fifthsthat of the Earth, and its mass rather less than one-eightieth, while the force of gravi

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