midnight
The El Dorado visions with which the virgin mystery of the New World inspired the early Spanish explorers were tame and prosaic compared with the speculations which it was perfectly legitimate to indulge , when the problem was the conditions of life on another planet . It was the time of the year when Mars is most favorably situated for observation , and , anxious not to lose an hour of the precious season , I had spent the greater part of several successive nights in the observatory . I believed that I had made some original observations as to the trend of the coast of Kepler Land between Lagrange Peninsula and Christie Bay , and it was to this spot that my observations were particularly directed . On the fourth night other work detained me from the observing-chair till after midnight . When I had adjusted the instrument and took my first look at Mars , I remember being unable to restrain a cry of admiration . The planet was fairly dazzling . It seemed nearer and larger than I had ever seen it before , and its peculiar ruddiness more striking .