midnight
`` There will be no danger from , meteors or sub-satellites here , '' said Bearwarden , `` for anything revolving about the moon at this distance would be caught by the earth . '' The sun had apparently set behind the moon , and they were eclipsed . The stars shone with the utmost splendour against the dead-black sky , and the earth appeared as a large crescent , still considerably larger than the satellite to which they were accustomed . Exactly at midnight a faint phosphorescent light , like that of a glow-worm , appeared in the region of Greenland on the planet they had left . It gradually increased its strength till it shone like a long white beam projected from a lighthouse , and in this they beheld the work of the greatest search-light ever made by man , receiving for a few moments all the electricity generated by the available dynamos at Niagara and the Bay of Fundy , the steam engines , and other sources of power in the northern hemisphere . The beam lasted with growing intensity for one minute ; it then spelled out with clean-cut intervals , according to the Cable Code : `` 23 @ no ' 6 '' . The southern hemisphere pumps are now raising and storing water at full blast .