Moons

Discussion of the various things regarding the setting itself, such as large changes to culture, politics or geography.
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Moons

Post by Nymphetamine »

This is the information I got from Pat regarding the two moons in the setting:
Tell Suz the names of the moons are Dilminth (larger, green one) and Peralin (smaller blue one). I was working a long time ago to do something with orbits, phases, and stuff, but like a lot of my creative efforts, life landed on me like an ACME anvil hits the Coyote. Tell Suz to go nuts and have fun and I'd love to see what she comes up with (and would be glad to put my two cents in if she wants).
So I guess they do have names and colours. But not much else about orbits, phases or whatever else, leaving it wide open for everyone.
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Re: Moons

Post by Cobweb »

Just some moon stuff rattling around in my head, if you like it go with it.

Dilminth, or Green Lady, has a slow orbit around the planet which takes 2 days to complete. Meaning it is only visible every other night. Rising from the southwest sky and slowly making its way to the northeast through its climb. Its rotation has slowed as well so the phases take 3 months to go from new moon to full. Stories tell that Dilminth is the mother of the smaller blue moon Peralin., and she slowly makes her way around him and the planet making sure they both stay out of trouble.

Peralin, or Blue Boy, is closer to the planet than Dilminth and has a rapid orbit that only takes 2/3 of a day to complete, following an opposite path as the larger moon it rises in the northeast and moves to the southwest. Due to its quick orbit some nights it has already made most of its journey before it's dark enough to see fully. Being close as it is sometimes it is possible to see this moon in the day given clear skies. Rotating so the phases shift from new moon to full in only one month, it is a fast traveler in the night sky. As the lore goes Peralin is the young energetic son of Dilminth who is always running from his mother and making mischief where he can.

Once every 125 years they two moons orbits meet at the same point in the sky, known as the Great Hug, during the moments they are in alignment they give the appearance of a large eye in the skies above. One even more rare event is a full eclipse with the sun behind both moons during the Great Hug. Happening one time every 1000 years it is said this is when Peralin was once born, and due to this the rare event is considered the greatest fertility symbol there is.

Just some thoughts, don't know if they work for anyone
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Re: Moons

Post by Suzthulhu »

Oh wow, I love that!! Can you do a calendar type thing over a month or so to show how they interact? I had always mentioned two full moons at once occasionally when playing the werewolf types, but this is stellar.
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Re: Moons

Post by Cobweb »

i would need to figure out how to do the calendar but would love to. I will see what i can do
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Re: Moons

Post by Trace »

As the moons are written now there is no way they could function without having an extreme effect on the planet, its tides, and weather.

Lunar phases have nothing to do with their rotational period and everything to do with their orbital period. As they are currently here is no way that life should be possible in the setting. Unless they are absurdly small (like Phobos or Deimos small), which I don't think is the case here.

I'm not an astronomer or physicist, so I'm not even going to begin attempting to calculate masses or distances required for the moons to be orbiting the way they are without throwing each other out into space, other than to say that it would probably require a planet at least 2.5 times the size of Earth, or a lot of complementary bodies elsewhere in the solar system.

You could always throw the "it's magic" explanation out but that's a cheap cop-out I think.

You could of course swap the numbers...

Dilminth could have a slow orbital period of three months, meaning that for a portion of that time it is not visible, period, but concurrently have a relatively fast rotational period of only two days (compared to the contemporary moon which rotates so slowly that its rotational period is equal to its orbital period which is why we see the same moon every night excepting the new moon).

Peralin's orbit being that speed would mean it needs to be either very small, very close, or both, and you really don't want it to be very close without being very small.

For the colors, you would need a particular soil composition in order for them to reflect light in the respective portions of the spectrum. To give an example the colors of the moons could be due to them having copper-saturated soil or a surface with a large quantity of copper-based minerals such as malachite for Dilminth and azurite for Peralin.

But on the whole the amateur scientist portion of my brain looks at Cobweb's description of the moons and goes 'lol no'.
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Re: Moons

Post by Alex »

I'm less concerned with astrophysics and more concerned about making stuff that looks cool.
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