one in the morning
In order to calculate this to within a few seconds , Barbicane had only to refer to his notes , and to reckon the different heights taken on the lunar parallels . Thus the time necessary to travel over the distance between the dead point and the south pole would be equal to the distance separating the north pole from the dead point . The hours representing the time traveled over were carefully noted , and the calculation was easy . Barbicane found that this point would be reached at one in the morning on the night of the 7th-8th of December . So that , if nothing interfered with its course , it would reach the given point in twenty-two hours . The rockets had primarily been placed to check the fall of the projectile upon the moon , and now they were going to employ them for a directly contrary purpose . In any case they were ready , and they had only to wait for the moment to set fire to them .