In Poul Anderson's History of Technic Civilization, "the Long Night" is the significant phrase repeatedly used to describe the collapse of interstellar civilization after the Fall of the Terran Empire.
In Verne's Around The Moon, we encounter this same phrase as a chapter title but here it means literally the fifteen day lunar night. On the lunar Far Side, neither the Sun nor the Earth is above at night. Thus, when the projectile is above Far Side at night, it is plunged into darkness and then into extreme cold with ice on the portholes. The astronauts must use gas for both light and heat. By passing a thermometer on a cord through a porthole, they measure the temperature of space as 140 degrees Centigrade.
Verne's text is full of documentary data not integrated into the narrative but I am determined to finish the book to find out what the astronauts see on the Moon and how they return to Earth. Even more interesting will be the contents of Verne's remaining two interplanetary novels.
