g so
near the sun it is only visible an hour before or after sunset,
depending upon its position. But Mercury, being so near the Solar Orb,
it is rarely its position is favorable for observation from our planet,
and then only with our more perfect telescopes.

Our students view the phenomena of eclipses of the sun and our planet
with the greatest interest, just as your astronomers do.

Mars' two moons present what would appear to you a most striking
phenomenon, for one rises in the East and the other in the West,
passing each other at times within view of observers. The most distant
satellite of Mars is known to us as Laster, to which has been given the
name of Deimos by the first observers on your Earth. Approximately 132
hours elapse between its rising and setting at any particular point on
our planet, as a consequence of the fact that it revolves in 30 hours
18 minutes at a distance of 14,600 miles more or less from its primary;
and as Mars rotates in 24 hours 37 minutes from East to West the motion
is almost neutralized by the circulation of this satellite.

During the time of its rotation it changes four times from full to new
and new to full. The appearance of this satellite to the Martians is
equal, if not a little brighter than the view of Jupiter from your
Earth.

The second satellite, known to us as Benii, and to your astronomers as
Phobos, sheds considerable amount of light on the Martian landscape by
means of its large size and close proximity, being distant about 3,700
miles from the surface of Mars. This satellite is shut out from view
beyond 69 degrees latitude by reason of the curvature of its primary.
Its period is 7 hours and 30 minutes--less than one-third the time of
the rotation of Mars. It rises in the West and courses across the
Heavens in 11 hours, during which time it undergoes one entire cycle of
its phases and gets through half another. Its disc appears to us as a
little more than half of the moon's disc on your Earth at full appears
to you.

The realm of Physics presents another interesting study to the Martian
student. We have advanced to the study of Nature's laws to a point
which would appear to your understanding most incomprehensible. Long
ago we mastered the knowledge of the method of releasing Interatomic
Energy,[2] a knowledge which in the brain of an unscrupulous person
would be most disastrous, not only to himself but to those about him.
The energy locked up in an ato