Here is something I have been working on for quite some time. It has kept me busy enough that I now rarely visit these forums or study the latest RMU betas. Shame on me.
However, I am also working on writing a novel. At the same time I have been building a fictional stellar system for my world using the program
Celestia.
I tried using AstroSynthesis; however, AstroSynthesis (AS3) does NOT use true Keplerian formulas for calculating orbital periods. Keplerian formulas are the basis for much of the science of Orbital Mechanics. According to the Keplerian formulas I use, Ondero orbits Onaviu once every 54 Onaviu days, or 72 Earth days. When I input the exact same numbers into AS3, it calculates Ondero's orbital period to be a mere 3 days 20 hours. Thus, I shall never recommend AS3. The only good thing about it is that it will create a sector of stellar systems in a matter of seconds (on my machine it only takes it about 20 seconds to generate about 100 systems). However, I can never truly be sure that the numbers are actually correct.
In fact, for a test, I had AS3 create a single stellar system. I then plugged the numbers it generated into the Keplerian Orbital Mechanics formulas I use, only to find AstroSynthesis inaccuracies ranged from about 25%, to a whopping 1050%. GASP!
I have contacted the creators; however, they say AS3 uses true science in its calculations, even though I showed them it does NOT. Thus, I would suggest you save your $30 and NOT purchase AS3. Celestia is FREE! and not that difficult to learn. It just requires more work on your part to create a stellar system.
Enough of that.
Initially, I gave my world rings, which it does not truly have, so I could see the equatorial plane easier when zoomed out.
On a whim, I decided to speed time up to 100,000x normal to watch the shadow created by the rings move up and down the face of the world since it has an axial tilt. As I was watching, something flashed by. It took quite some time for me to go backwards and forwards while also slowing the time factor to find what had flashed by.
I am knowledgable enough to know that even with a fictional stellar system that eclipses are an inevitability. They will occur. I was not expecting for an eclipse to occur so soon from "today's" time. Using UTC, I found that Ondero eclipses my world of Onaviu on approximately 2016 1001 19 00 00 to 2016 1004 06 00 00 (format = YYYY MMDD hh mm ss).
I have since remade a simplified map of my world which only shows water, land, and locale points along with the characters' journey path. The map was made using the Plate-Caree projection (not to be confused with the Equirectangular Projection). Plate-Caree is a 2:1 projection, whereas Equirectangular is 1.75:1. Only the Plate-Carree projection can be "wrapped" onto a sphere or oblate spheroid with no further distortion, except for the "pinching" effect at the poles.
I have been studying this eclipse, recording the times of events at the locale points, then converting the UTC time to OTTC time (OTTC = Onaviu Tanlindon Time Coordinate).
Lo and behold, I have discovered that the eclipse does occur during the characters' travels and is seen by them. I have also found that the characters will also witness Onaviu eclipsing Ondero during their travels. Thus, I now have to go back and rewrite the story. This is the reason I have been too busy to visit these boards and/or study the RMU betas very often. Still, shame on me.
I have created a series of image captures of the eclipse every 3600 seconds (1 hour). The zipfile containing these images is available at the below link.
Dropbox LinkThe total time for the entire event from First Touch to Last Touch, in UTC time, is from 2016 1001 18 59 48 to 2016 1004 06 40 32, for a total event time of 59h 40m 44s. Again, time format = YYYY MMDD hh mm ss. The image files are named using the same UTC time format, but with hyphens instead of spaces.
I am also doing some research into the climatic effects of Ondero's shadow. I know there has to be some changes since Ondero's shadow is so large and can last for several hours in some locales. I also wonder if it would create some rather severe storms. But that is another topic.
rmfr
