midnight
After sunset , the sky darkened rapidly -- there was a very brief twilight interval indeed -- and the stars shone out . They were recognisably the same as those we see , arranged in the same constellations . Mr. Cave recognised the Bear , the Pleiades , Aldebaran , and Sirius ; so that the other world must be somewhere in the solar system , and , at the utmost , only a few hundreds of millions of miles from our own . Following up this clue , Mr. Wace learned that the midnight sky was a darker blue even than our midwinter sky , and that the sun seemed a little smaller . _ And there were two small moons ! _ `` like our moon but smaller , and quite differently marked , '' one of which moved so rapidly that its motion was clearly visible as one regarded it . These moons were never high in the sky , but vanished as they rose : that is , every time they revolved they were eclipsed because they were so near their primary planet .