Mapping and Measuring

Abstract

Abstract Scientists studied the Moon through telescopes that they built themselves, though these were not powerful enough to dispel the notion of life on the Moon. They became firmer in the belief that lunar craters were volcanoes. They continued to measure the height of lunar mountains, and in 1848, two German scientists, Wilhelm Beer and Johann Heinrich Mädler, published an amazingly detailed map of the Moon. As others began to publish their own maps, Mary Blagg took up the task of reconciling the disparate names applied to the same lunar feature. Franz von Paula Gruithuisen considered the question of the Moon’s origin, saying that all the planets and moons had grown by the aggregation of smaller bodies. Unfortunately, the credibility of this prescient notion was undercut by Gruithuisen’s report of people, animals, and crops on the Moon—even a fortress, a city, and a temple at which the “Lunites” worshiped the stars.