[Gridrus-developer] if the comet crossed the planetary orbit at the exact moment at which

[Hershel T. <cof...@pe...>]

He Moon first suggested an easy division of time into months and weeks,
and the first astronomical observations were limited to the study of her
phases. Daughter of the Earth, the Moon was born at the limits of the
terrestrial nebula, when our world was still no more than a vast gaseous
sphere, and was detached from her at some critical period of colossal
solar tide. Separating with regret from her cradle, but attached to the
Earth by indissoluble ties of attraction, she rotates round us in a
month, from west to east, and this movement keeps her back a little each
day in relation to the stars. If we watch, evening by evening, beginning
from the new moon, we shall observe that she is each night a little
farther to the left, or east, than on the preceding evening. This
revolution of the Moon around our planet produces the phases, and gives
the measure of our months. [Illustration: FIG. 64.--The Full Moon slowly
rises.] During her monthly journey she always presents the same face to
us. One might think that the fear of losing us had immobilized her
globe, and prevented her from turning. And so we only know of her the
vague sketch of a human face that has been observed through all the
ages. It seems, in fact, as though she were looking down upon us from
the Heavens, the more so as the principal spots of her disk vaguely
recall the aspect of a face. If we try to draw it without the aid of
instruments we observe dark regions and clear regions that each
interprets in his own fashion. To the author, for instance, the full
Moon has the appearance represented in the following figure. The spots
resemble two eyes and the sketch of a nose; res