[Dragaera] Dragaera and Moons **Minor Vallista Spoiler, nothing plot related**

[dusty at sayersnet.com]

>
>
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>       From: Scott Schultz via Dragaera <dragaera at lists.dragaera.info>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dragaera [mailto:dragaera-bounces at lists.dragaera.info] On Behalf
>> Of
>> Jerry Friedman via Dragaera
>> Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2017 1:47 PM
>> To: dragaera at lists.dragaera.info
>> Subject: Re: [Dragaera] Dragaera and Moons **Minor Vallista Spoiler,
>> nothing plot related**
>> Sent from my iPhone please excuse typos
>> > ----- Original Message -----
>> >
>> > From: "Konrad Gaertner via Dragaera" <dragaera at lists.dragaera.info>
>> > To: dragaera at lists. To.info
>> > Sent: Friday, November 3, 2017 5:04:29 AM
>> > Subject: Re: [Dragaera] Dragaera and Moons **Minor Vallista Spoiler,
>> > nothing plot related**
>> >
>> >> On 11/2/2017 10:19 PM, Jon via Dragaera wrote:
>> >> Spoiler Space
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>> > [snip]
>> >
>> >>> to the rotational period of the planet itself. Effectively, it means
>> >>> this moon must orbit at a point close to (but not exactly at) the
>> >>> natural altitude for a fully geosynchronous orbit. It cannot diverge
>> >>> from this orbital period by more than about 2 hours per day (given
>> >>> Dragaera's 30-hour day), however, or else it would always take fewer
>> >>> than nine days to appear again in the sky at any particular point on
>> >>> the
>> >>> surface of the planet.
>> >>
>> >> Is this the only option using normal physics? I'm asking because in
>> >> another series I'm reading, there's a world with a moon that is
>> similar
>> >> in size and phases to Earth's, but is only visible every eighth day.
>> >
>> > This is the only solution I can see that does not involve the observer
>> > being at some extremely specific location (such as near one of the
>> poles,
>> > which does not seem to be the case given the shirtless condition of
>> the
>> > character in the scene), or some other
>> > extremely-significant-yet-entirely-unmentioned factor, such as dust
>> clouds
>> > obscuring the view of the moon, for example. This does not appear to
>> be
>> > the case here, given the phrasing of the passage.
>> >
>> > Regarding how one could have a moon that was visible only once every
>> eight
>> > days--well, that makes no sense to me using normal physics. There's no
>> > normal orbit that would cause a body the size of the moon to be
>> visible
>> > for only one day, then completely missing the next 7. Even with a
>> highly
>> > elliptical orbit with an 8 day period, an object the size and mass of
>> the
>> > moon would still have to be pretty clearly visible as a moon on days 7
>> and
>> > 9 (and visible at least as a bright star the rest of the time) else,
>> it
>> > would either have to be moving so fast that there's no way it would be
>> > able to maintain an orbit, or else it's orbital period would have to
>> be
>> > much longer than 8 days. (And I hate to think what the impact of tidal
>> > forces of such an object in such an orbit would be like on the
>> planet's
>> > surface. Yikes!)
>> >
>> > Certainly there could be exotic solutions involving other factors such
>> as
>> > temporal displacement via wormholes, obfuscation by clouds, or the
>> moon
>> > getting repeatedly kidnapped by space goblins, but none of these are a
>> > result of orbital mechanics alone.
>> >
>>
>>
>> Maybe it's actually some sort of satellite or space station or other
>> artificial construct in space that has an artificially unusual orbit.
>>
>
> IMO, it's the Terran mother ship that brought  the Easterners to Dragaera
> just in time to be used as the control lab rats. Whatever the reason for
> its orbit, it's entirely artificial. It could be some geosynchronous orbit
> that makes sense when you're directly underneath it, but that Dolivar and
> the nascent Empire only see every so often when the planet's natural
> wobble brings it into visible range. It could be some highly elliptical
> orbit, like a comet. Note that the wording is that it will rise in
> "another nine days", not that it rises EVERY nine days. We don't really
> know the period of Littlemoon (even if Dolivar does know it).
>
> I'm more interested what sort of phenomenon Morning Snake represents. It
> could be their version of the Milky Way, but why name something that comes
> out at night, "Morning Snake"? If it's a constellation, it would have to
> be a very unusually bright and obvious constellation, especially to be
> visible when the sun is rising.
>
> If a nuclear reactor blew up in orbit, would the debris continue to glow
> and create a band across part of the sky? My very first thought was that a
> band of amorphia could be orbiting the planet but in that case, I'd expect
> the Jenoine to be attempting to harvest that instead of going after the
> Greater Sea or Lesser Sea that are both defensible to some extent.
> +++++++++++++++++
> I'm having trouble imagining a planet wobbling enough to bring a
> geosynchronous satellite into and out of view on a scale of days.
> A constellation wouldn't just appear in the morning.  The time of day it
> appeared would depend on the time of year.
> I must admit I didn't spend more than a second thinking about the Morning
> Snake.  Now that you mention it, though, if a nuclear reactor as we know
> them blew up, it could glow for a long time if it stayed together somehow,
> but I don't see how it would if its debris spread out.  On the other
> hand, if the Morning Snake is amorphia, maybe the Jenoine did harvest it
> and that's why it isn't mentioned in any later stories.
> We refer to Venus (and sometimes other planets) as a morning star and
> evening star, depending on when we can see it.  Maybe a planet closer in
> than Dragaera is sometimes the Morning Snake and sometimes the Evening
> Snake.  It could be called a snake because it's so big and close that you
> can see a snake-like pattern on it.  (If it's artificial, it could be
> less massive than you'd think and not disturb Dragaera's orbit or create
> much in the way of tides.)Â  If it's tidally locked to the Furnace, the
> snake pattern could be on the side of the planet that's visible during the
> Dragaeran morning, so then it could be the Morning Snake and the Evening
> Sea Anemone or something.  Or maybe it's a giant ice-and-dust planet that
> has a tail like a comet.  Or maybe it's named Snake for reasons having
> nothing to do with its visual appearance.
>
> Does Dragaera have noticeable seasons?  What is the Dragaeran year
> synchronized with?  I don't remember Vlad ever talking about winter
> coming (the way Billy does in Cowboy Feng) or anything like that, which
> would be obvious wish-fulfillment for someone from Minneapolis, but I
> could easily be forgetting something.
> We may not get enough clues about astronomy to settle these questions,
> considering how seldom Vlad sees the sky.
> Wait till we find out that Dragaera doesn't orbit anything and the Furnace
> is a huge sorcerous lamp that orbits Dragaera.
>
> Jerry Friedman
>

I think in Phoenix Vlad mentions that the New Year is in winter and Aibynn
says it's in the spring back home (or vice versa).  I don't recall any
description of what the seasons are like, though.