2-26-56 Through Our Binoculars

We have just been looking at the moon through our binoculars. Tonight is one of a series of the most beautiful nights I can remember - there have been & will be other kinds of nights as beautiful but there can be none more so. After winds & rains & snows the upper air is infinitely clear - as though a vacuum - the moon is a full, serene sphere - the stars are distinct & tremulous - the clouds rushing and transparent. Looking through the binoculars I can see the craters along the top of the sphere, outlined by shadow - there are the dark masses (have I heard it said this is vegetation?) - and faint signs of the canals I have heard described. It looks like it might be a Japanese lantern, or a magnificent pearl, or an onion - it seems not real - I must reassure myself that I am looking at the moon - not a picture of it and not a model of it - but the moon, pure and simple - I think of setting foot on it, of the trips to the moon I hear being planned for the future, and I do not like to think of it as being within reach, as another place to visit - I want it to stay as it is now - I'd like to be a part of it, or a part of the wisp of cloud rushing over its face - I'd like to be as distant, as unruffled, as untouchable, "by the jarring testimony of mortal mind".