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The article discusses the work of 19th-century astronomers James Nasmyth and James Carpenter, who created highly accurate plaster models of the Moon despite having incorrect ideas about how lunar craters formed. They proposed a volcanic theory of crater formation, suggesting that the Moon's surface contracted as it cooled and shrank. While their theories were later proven inaccurate, Nasmyth and Carpenter's innovative illustrations and models provided valuable insights into the Moon's topography and were ahead of their time. [Extracted from the article]

In an 1887 speech that was reprinted in the January and February 1888 issues of The Sidereal Messenger, Newcomb confessed that so far as astronomy was concerned, "we do appear to be fast reaching the limits of our knowledge." Flammarion, Todd, and Newcomb all dealt expansively with visible solar phenomena, especially sunspot frequency, size, and shape, in their public writings. Newcomb also described his observations of the transit of Venus in Astronomy for Everybody, concluding that the planet's atmosphere is "so full of vapour that we cannot see the light of the Sun by direct refraction through it." Newcomb was a prolific writer and frequently penned popular astronomy columns for McClure's Magazine, some of which served as the basis for his 1902 book Astronomy for Everybody. [Extracted from the article]