five o'clock in the morning
This was easily done . To refer to his notes , to check off the different rates of velocity at which they had readied the different parallels , and to turn these rates into time , required only a very few minutes careful calculation . The Projectile then was to reach the point of neutral attraction at one o'clock in the morning of December 8th . At the present time , it was five o'clock in the morning of the 7th ; therefore , if nothing unforeseen should occur in the meantime , their great and final effort was to be made about twenty hours later . The rockets , so often alluded to as an idea of Ardan 's and already fully described , had been originally provided to break the violence of the Projectile 's fall on the lunar surface ; but now the dauntless travellers were about to employ them for a purpose precisely the reverse . In any case , having been put in proper order for immediate use , nothing more now remained to be done till the moment should come for firing them off . `` Now then , friends , '' said M'Nicholl , rubbing his eyes but hardly able to keep them open , `` I 'm not over fond of talking , but this time I think I may offer a slight proposition . ''