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The image of the sun in the moon is powerfully luminous, and is only
on a small portion of its surface. And the proof may be seen by
taking a ball of burnished gold and placing it in the dark with a
light at some distance from it; and then, although it will
illuminate about half of the ball, the eye will perceive its
reflection only in a small part of its surface, and all the rest of
the surface reflects the darkness which surrounds it; so that it is
only in that spot that the image of the light is seen, and all the
rest remains invisible, the eye being at a distance from the ball.
The same thing would happen on the surface of the moon if it were
polished, lustrous and opaque, like all bodies with a reflecting
surface.
Show how, if you were standing on the moon or on a star, our earth
would seem to reflect the sun as the moon does.
And show that the image of the sun in the sea cannot appear one and
undivided, as it appears in a perfectly plane mirror.
8
94.
How shadows are lost at great distances, as is shown by the shadow
side of the moon which is never seen. [Footnote: Compare also Vol.
I, Nos. 175-179.]
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