midnight
However , if the experiment had succeeded , the travellers , who had started on the 1st of December , at 10h . 46m . 40s . p.m. , were due at their destination on the 4th at midnight ; so that as up to that time it would , after all , have been difficult to observe a body so small , people waited with all the patience they could muster . On the 4th of December , from 8 p.m. till midnight , it would have been possible to follow the trace of the projectile , which would have appeared like a black speck on the shining disc of the moon . But the weather remained imperturbably cloudy , and exasperated the public , who swore at the moon for not showing herself . _ Sic transit gloria mundi _ !