five in the morning
Their eyes were confused . They could no longer grasp the respective distances of the different plains . A lunar landscape without the softening of the phenomena of _ chiaro-oscuro _ could not be rendered by an earthly landscape painter ; it would be spots of ink on a white page -- nothing more . This aspect was not altered even when the projectile , at the height of 80 @ , was only separated from the moon by a distance of fifty miles ; nor even when , at five in the morning , it passed at less than twenty-five miles from the mountain of Gioja , a distance reduced by the glasses to a quarter of a mile . It seemed as if the moon might be touched by the hand ! It seemed impossible that , before long , the projectile would not strike her , if only at the north pole , the brilliant arch of which was so distinctly visible on the black sky . Michel Ardan wanted to open one of the scuttles and throw himself on to the moon 's surface !