By little
more than a turn of my head I could see in one direction Polaris
(_alpha_ Ursae Minoris) with the Great Bear, and in another the
Southern Cross, the Ship, and the Centaur.
About 23h. 30m., near the close of the first day, I again inspected
the barycrite. It showed 1/1100 of terrestrial gravity, an incredibly
small change from the 1/800 recorded at 19h., since it implied a
progress proportionate only to the square root of the difference. The
observation indicated, if the instrument could be trusted, an advance
of only 18,000 miles. It was impossible that the Astronaut had not by
this time attained a very much greater speed than 4000 miles an hour,
and a greater distance from the Earth than 33 terrestrial radii, or
132,000 miles. Moreover, the barycrite itself had given at 19h. a
distance of 28-1/2 radii, and a speed far greater than that which upon
its showing had since been maintained. Extinguishing the lamp, I found
that the Earth's diameter on the discometer measured 2 deg. 3' 52" (?).
This represented a gain of some 90,000 miles; much more approximate to
that which, judging by calculation, I ought to have accomplished
during the last four hours and a half, if my speed approached to that
I had estimated.
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