suspected spot and would register the truth or falsehood of the observation.
They knocked off work to eat in the space cruiser. After they had satisfied their hunger and privately rejoiced to find Telders as good a ship's cook as he was a ship’s navigator, John Carson Parr called a conference.
"We’ll have to set up a regular system of watching crews. Two men must be on duty outside at all times. So we shall divide our day into three sections. Two men asleep, two men in the ship, two men outside. The four men awake will spell each other at two-hour intervals so that no one will be outside in space-suits too long.”
“May I suggest,” put in Worden, “that perhaps it would save time and trouble to set up a photographic system rather than a human eye system? We do have telescopic cameras aboard and by attaching them to the scope and developing them regularly we could detect changes.”
The elder Parr shook his head. “I thought about that, but I feel that the work we’re doing should not be left to the chance eye of a camera. The human eye and the human mind is capable of spotting those tiny changes—which may last only a second perhaps. Don’t forget that this telescope will take our eye right down almost to the very surface of Mars. It will be like hanging in air only about fifty feet up. We should be able to detect any movement, man-size or greater, but the portion of the surface we can watch at any one instant will be very, very restricted. For that reason human selectivity will be quite important.
“And of course we shall also sweep the wide surfaces with a lower power lens. The job is not so easy as it seems. A needle in a haystack would probably be easier to locate.”
The long vigil began. Gradually the men fell into the routine of their work. As with all things at first, nothing seemed natural, nothing seemed right. On their little barren moon there was nothing like day or night. Only the eternal wheeling of Mars on its own orbit, and the rapid movement of the sun through their black sky. But for them, the sky was forever dark, the stars forever brilliant. The two men on duty would spell each other at the scope, endlessly sweeping the face of their former home. Two would be asleep in bunks. Two would be at work in the ship, or perhaps just wandering the surface of the moon to catch glimpses of other astronomical wonders from beyond.
For besides the eternal globe of Mars, many and varied were the sights they could see from their vantage point. Near as Mars was to the famous asteroid belt, there was not a moment when several of these fragmentary planets were not wheeling across their sky. Some of them came close enough to outshine briefly even the major planets which were the foremost glories of their views.
Mighty Jupiter, ruler of the solar system, was strongly in their view with the naked eye, and four of its satellites, giant worlds for their type, could be seen with ease. Hinged Saturn could be spotted occasionally, its rings detectable. Uranus was spotted amid the cluster of stars, and Nelson Parr had talked over the possibility of locating even distant Neptune by telescope, until Telders worked out its location and showed it to be on the other side of the sun from them, as was Pluto.
But the greatest glory of their sky was a brilliantly shining green crescent that followed the sun in its turns. This world, a glowing, sometimes misty, wonder, was forever accompanied by a tinier white echo of itself, a crescent always similar in shape. The name of this beautiful vision was Earth and toward it their eyes always strayed.
At first, when they had just set up their post, Earth was a thin crescent, large in their heavens. As time passed, as days passed, this crescent grew, became fatter, and as it did so, it grew smaller at the same time. For Earth was traveling away from Mars, swinging away from it and the sun was lighting more and more from their
They knocked off work to eat in the space cruiser. After they had satisfied their hunger and privately rejoiced to find Telders as good a ship's cook as he was a ship’s navigator, John Carson Parr called a conference.
"We’ll have to set up a regular system of watching crews. Two men must be on duty outside at all times. So we shall divide our day into three sections. Two men asleep, two men in the ship, two men outside. The four men awake will spell each other at two-hour intervals so that no one will be outside in space-suits too long.”
“May I suggest,” put in Worden, “that perhaps it would save time and trouble to set up a photographic system rather than a human eye system? We do have telescopic cameras aboard and by attaching them to the scope and developing them regularly we could detect changes.”
The elder Parr shook his head. “I thought about that, but I feel that the work we’re doing should not be left to the chance eye of a camera. The human eye and the human mind is capable of spotting those tiny changes—which may last only a second perhaps. Don’t forget that this telescope will take our eye right down almost to the very surface of Mars. It will be like hanging in air only about fifty feet up. We should be able to detect any movement, man-size or greater, but the portion of the surface we can watch at any one instant will be very, very restricted. For that reason human selectivity will be quite important.
“And of course we shall also sweep the wide surfaces with a lower power lens. The job is not so easy as it seems. A needle in a haystack would probably be easier to locate.”
The long vigil began. Gradually the men fell into the routine of their work. As with all things at first, nothing seemed natural, nothing seemed right. On their little barren moon there was nothing like day or night. Only the eternal wheeling of Mars on its own orbit, and the rapid movement of the sun through their black sky. But for them, the sky was forever dark, the stars forever brilliant. The two men on duty would spell each other at the scope, endlessly sweeping the face of their former home. Two would be asleep in bunks. Two would be at work in the ship, or perhaps just wandering the surface of the moon to catch glimpses of other astronomical wonders from beyond.
For besides the eternal globe of Mars, many and varied were the sights they could see from their vantage point. Near as Mars was to the famous asteroid belt, there was not a moment when several of these fragmentary planets were not wheeling across their sky. Some of them came close enough to outshine briefly even the major planets which were the foremost glories of their views.
Mighty Jupiter, ruler of the solar system, was strongly in their view with the naked eye, and four of its satellites, giant worlds for their type, could be seen with ease. Hinged Saturn could be spotted occasionally, its rings detectable. Uranus was spotted amid the cluster of stars, and Nelson Parr had talked over the possibility of locating even distant Neptune by telescope, until Telders worked out its location and showed it to be on the other side of the sun from them, as was Pluto.
But the greatest glory of their sky was a brilliantly shining green crescent that followed the sun in its turns. This world, a glowing, sometimes misty, wonder, was forever accompanied by a tinier white echo of itself, a crescent always similar in shape. The name of this beautiful vision was Earth and toward it their eyes always strayed.
At first, when they had just set up their post, Earth was a thin crescent, large in their heavens. As time passed, as days passed, this crescent grew, became fatter, and as it did so, it grew smaller at the same time. For Earth was traveling away from Mars, swinging away from it and the sun was lighting more and more from their
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