CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 ...

CHAPTER 7 143
between darkness and light, the terminator, advances, the floor of Plato grows darker. At high noon it looks
like an inkspot. What happens in the crater of Plato? Evaporation of moisture forming a light-absorbing mist?
Or just melting ice? Or crystals with freakish optical qualities?
Professor William H. Pickering thinks he saw a snowstorm on Mount Pico. And he repeatedly observed
grayish spots moving around inside the crater. Cloud formations betraying the presence of moisture? Or
vegetation springing up and being killed off by the heat of the Sun in a rapid cycle?
Once again, here is an obvious contradiction.
How can you have thermal erosion and not have an atmosphere?
Ley says the first era of astronomy was naked-eye observation, the second era is telescopic observation, and
the third era will be spaceship exploration. Astronomy, he says, confirms first-era knowledge by optical
instruments, but it is less definite in its conclusions regarding the questions poised by the telescope--mostly
concerning the surface conditions of planets. This is an admission that they know very little. Ley says several
times: "We will know such and such when we get there." Until then, Mr. Ley, you are a guesser.
Ley says: "Oh, we are sure about a number of things. Take Venus, for example. It is almost a second Earth as
far as size goes. Its diameter is only two-hundred miles less than that of Earth. The mass is eighty per cent of
that of our rather massive home planet. The albedo is fifty-nine per cent, the highest albedo in the Solar
System. Venus most decidedly has an atmosphere. The Venus year is 224.7 of our days long, a fact easily
explained by the tighter orbit and higher orbital velocity. Venus' orbit is the most clearly circular one in the
whole Solar System and the disk of Venus the most nearly perfect circle; it does not show any traces of an
equatorial bulge."
That short paragraph contains the sum total of the definite knowledge science has about the planet which
approaches us more closely than any other! You are "sure" about some things, Mr. Ley? A guesser is never
"sure" of anything.
Now let's take a look at the instruments used for modern astronomical observation. There are four of these; all
based on variations on the principle of the human eye. (1) Telescope; (2) camera; (3) thermocouple; (4)
spectroscope.
The spectroscope is an instrument that measures the wave-lengths of the chemical elements when they are
heated to a gaseous state and observed through a set of prisms.
Many scientists have used spectroscopic analysis as proof of the other planets being unable to support life. To
what degree can spectroscopic analysis be relied upon?
The following examples are given to show the contradictory nature of findings:
According to Belopolsky, Venus rotates in about twenty-four hours, as determined by the spectroscope.
However, according to Dr. Slipher, Venus rotates in about two-hundred twenty-four days, as determined by
the spectroscope.
According to observations too numerous to mention, the seeming motions of stars, occulted by the Moon,
show that the Moon has an atmosphere. According to the spectroscope, there is no atmosphere on the Moon.
The ring of light around Venus, during the transits of 1874 and 1882, indicated that Venus has atmosphere.
Most astronomers say that Venus has an atmosphere of extreme density, obscuring the features of the planet.
According to spectrum analysis, by Sir William Huggins, Venus has no atmosphere.