Yıldız Habercisi

Let us first speak of the surface of the Moon which faces us. For the sake of easier understanding, I distinguish two parts: namely, one brighter and the other darker. The brighter part appears to surround and overflow the entire hemisphere, while the darker part infects the face itself like a certain cloud and renders it spotted. These somewhat dark and quite large spots are obvious to everyone, and every age has seen them; for this reason, we shall call them the large or ancient spots, to distinguish them from other spots smaller in size, but so thickly scattered that they sprinkle the entire Lunar surface, especially the brighter part. These, in fact, have been observed by no one before us. From repeated inspections of them, we have been led to the opinion that we certainly understand the surface of the Moon to be not polished, even, and of a most exact sphericity, as a great cohort of Philosophers has thought concerning it and the other celestial bodies, but on the contrary, it is uneven, rough, and crowded with cavities and protrusions, not otherwise than the face of the Earth itself, which is marked here and there by mountain ridges and depths of valleys. The appearances from which it was possible to gather these conclusions are of this sort. On the fourth or fifth day after conjunction, when the Moon offers itself to us with shining horns, the boundary dividing the dark part from the luminous part does not extend evenly according to an oval line, as would happen in a perfectly spherical solid; rather, it is designated by an uneven, rough, and very wavy line, just as the accompanying figure represents. For many bright excrescences, as it were, extend beyond the confines of light and darkness into the dark part, and conversely, dark particles enter into the light.