His best optical instruments were several excellent marine telescopes,
manufactured especially under his direction. Magnifying the object a
hundred times, on the surface of the Earth they would have brought the
Moon to within a distance of somewhat less than 2400 miles. But at the
point to which our travellers had arrived towards three o'clock in the
morning, and which could hardly be more than 12 or 1300 miles from the
Moon, these telescopes, ranging through a medium disturbed by no
atmosphere, easily brought the lunar surface to within less than 13
miles' distance from the eyes of our adventurers.
Therefore they should now see objects in the Moon as clearly as people
can see the opposite bank of a river that is about 12 miles wide.
[Footnote A: In our Map of the Moon, prepared expressly for this work,
we have so far improved on Beer and Maedler as to give her surface as it
appears to the naked eye: that is, the north is in the north; only we
must always remember that the west is and must be on the _right hand_.]
[Footnote B: In our Map the _Mappa Selenographica_ is copied as closely
and as fully as is necessary for understanding the details of the story.
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