Astronomical Observations: 3 September 2014

This image is particularly appropriate right now as I am going to try to determine at what ages of the Moon the Black Cat in the Moon can be seen.

I recently borrowed The Annotated Ancient Mariner which included the full original text of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner complete with the original engraved illustrations by Gustave Doré. The engravings were as interesting as the poem itself so I searched the library catalog to see if they had any more texts with Doré engravings and came up with The Doré Gallery: His 120 Greatest Illustrations, which the library hadn't lost yet. Among the engravings included was this illustration for the Jean de La Fontaine fable An Animal In The Moon. I had never heard of the fable but liked the illustration and the publisher even gives users permission to copy and use the images, which are in the public domain by now, as long as no more than 12 of them appear in any one place. So I scanned this image, all of the Don Quixote illustrations and a few others that I particularly liked.

I was not familiar with the fable but fortunately Google was. Or maybe it isn't all that fortunate. I think the illustration is better than the fable it illustrates.

AN ANIMAL IN THE MOON (VII,18)Men of their senses are the fools,
If one philosopher may be believed.
Another says by them we’re ne’er deceived
If we but rightly know to use our tools.
          And both are right. Our sense is lent
A mean, we must not trust to it alone.
But then again the sense will cozen none
If we consider distance, instrument,
             And medium. ’Twas wisely planned, 
          The proof is not just now at hand.
          Some day I’ll give it. From our ground 
          The sun appears but three feet round, 
          But if I see it from the sky,
          It is of all our world the eye.
          Its distance shows me its true size, 
          Its sides and angle I surmise.
The fool believes it's flat ; it's round I know, 
I know it rests, I know the dull earth moves ; 
My mind the error of my sight can show, 
And all my senses’ first idea disproves.
          My mind, in fact, all the world over,
          Detects the true beneath the cover.
          I cannot really quite agree
          With eyes somewhat too quick to see,
          Or ears, again, somewhat too slow.
          A crooked stick the waters show,
          My reason makes it straight again,
          My eyes deceive me but in vain.
The moon has in’t a woman’s head, they say : 
I know it can’t be so, but then its shape,
There high, there low, gives reason for this jape. 
Men may find in’t an elephant some day,
And something of this kind has England seen, 
A strange, portentous animal, I ween.
There was sure change they said within the moon,
No doubt we should hear wondrous tidings soon.
          Perhaps the many horrid wars
Which vex the French were presaged by this sign. 
The king himself did graciously incline 
          To see this beast amid the stars,
And after all what was it but a mouse
Which in the telescope had made his house ? 
          The English laughed. I would the chance 
          Of laughter came just now to France,
          To us who gain the laurel crown, 
          The while our foes the combat fear, 
          For victory holds Louis dear ;
          And we shall live in his renown ; 
          The daughters fair of Memory
          Are with us still, we pleasures find. 
          We wish for peace, but do not sigh
          That peace which Charles' valiant mind
Has brought to England after war's array,
With all the plays and games it knows to-day.
Oh, could he our unhappy quarrel stay,
What incense would be his, the second name
Among the Caesars weighs the first in fame.
Ah, happy English ! when will Peace atone
Our feuds, that we too may seek Art alone ?

The Black Cat in the Moon

I went to Bryant park shortly before sunset to see if the Black Cat in the Moon would be observable in daylight, if it is observable at all today. I found that the eastern portion was easily seen but the western side of the face and body and the neck were not visible. About an half an hour after sunset the contrast had changed and the terminator had moved sufficient that the entire animal was visible. This was at 9 Days and 67% illuminated. I did not see Rupes Recta, the Straight Wall, but the area where it should be forms the right side of the Cat's body. Up north I picked out the Alpine Valley.