midnight
This peculiarity was due to their regularly decreasing speed . Now when they observed the earth through the lower window , it looked like nothing more than a dark spot , drowned in the solar rays . No more crescent , no more cloudy light ! The next day , at midnight , the earth would be _ new _ , at the very moment when the moon would be full . Above , the orb of night was nearing the line followed by the projectile , so as to meet it at the given hour . All around the black vault was studded with brilliant points , which seemed to move slowly ; but , at the great distance they were from them , their relative size did not seem to change . The sun and stars appeared exactly as they do to us upon earth .