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Old 09-08-2018, 04:01 PM   #1001
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

Well, if the position of the Earth between the practitioner and Traveller hinders or enhances magic through adjusting the mana level, the eclipse of Traveller by the Sun would be even more dramatic. I would say that it should cause magic to be impossible, meaning that there would be an almost 38 hours period every year when the Earth becomes a no mana zone again (which would suggest that no entity would develop a mana dependency worse than weekly or else they would not survive the annual eclipse). Magicians would likely make sure they had loyal servants protecting them during that time.
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Old 09-08-2018, 06:43 PM   #1002
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Traveller-1

In Traveller-1, Traveller appeared in the sky around 1,000 years ago and, since it was visible day and night, was seen as evidence of the end of the apocalypse. Traveller is a mana star, an M8 red dwarf that produces mana as well as electromagnetic energy from its fusion processes, and it became gravitational bound to Sol during a close approach 1,000 years ago that placed it in a circular orbit 300 AU from Sol. .
This is the weird part. Specifically the star being visible by day or night.

The chart in Space actually stops at an M7 but just a bit beyond where it does would be is only 1/1000th the luminosity of the Sun and it's 300x as far away too. Sol wouldn't be more than a birght star in this thing's vicinity. the reverse case should be no sort of naked eye object under any conditions.
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Old 09-08-2018, 07:00 PM   #1003
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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This is the weird part. Specifically the star being visible by day or night.

The chart in Space actually stops at an M7 but just a bit beyond where it does would be is only 1/1000th the luminosity of the Sun and it's 300x as far away too. Sol wouldn't be more than a birght star in this thing's vicinity. the reverse case should be no sort of naked eye object under any conditions.
I thought it was obvious ...

IT'S MAAAAGIC!!!
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Old 09-08-2018, 07:08 PM   #1004
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

Perhaps it's only visible to those with at least some mana sensitivity. And all natives have some.
Could be weird for non-magical crosstimers not understanding what natives were talking about.
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Old 09-08-2018, 07:49 PM   #1005
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

The weird part is that something 300AU away out of the ecliptic has annual 38 hour eclipses.
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Old 09-08-2018, 07:54 PM   #1006
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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This is the weird part. Specifically the star being visible by day or night.

The chart in Space actually stops at an M7 but just a bit beyond where it does would be is only 1/1000th the luminosity of the Sun and it's 300x as far away too. Sol wouldn't be more than a birght star in this thing's vicinity. the reverse case should be no sort of naked eye object under any conditions.
I think it passes. The moon is 1/400,000th the Sun's brightness, but it's visible in daylight. Perhaps not if they're close together in the sky, but 45° away might be enough.
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Old 09-08-2018, 08:45 PM   #1007
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The weird part is that something 300AU away out of the ecliptic has annual 38 hour eclipses.
That is just the amount of time in the Earth's orbit around the Sun that the position of the Earth places the Sun between it and Traveller. The diameter of the Sun is 1/232 the diameter of the Earth's orbit, meaning that it blocks out that much of the view from Earth's orbit all of the time. The portion of the sky that would contain Traveller would be blocked out 38 hours every year. Of course, my math could be off, but I think that my numbers work.

The relative luminosity would be around 1:90,000,000 of that of the Sun, meaning that it should quite visible to humans during the night, an apparent magnitude of around -5.8, which would make it brighter than Venus during its maximum brightness, which can be seen during the day. While it would not be visible close to its annual eclipse, it would be visible the vast majority of the year, and would be the second brightest thing in the sky during the half of the year when it is visible during the night because of Earth's orbit.
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Old 09-08-2018, 10:56 PM   #1008
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That is just the amount of time in the Earth's orbit around the Sun that the position of the Earth places the Sun between it and Traveller. The diameter of the Sun is 1/232 the diameter of the Earth's orbit, meaning that it blocks out that much of the view from Earth's orbit all of the time. The portion of the sky that would contain Traveller would be blocked out 38 hours every year. Of course, my math could be off, but I think that my numbers work.
It would still have to happen to be in the ecliptic instead of some oblique plane of orbit, which is unlikely for a captured binary.

As for the timing, I'd figure that the Sun subtends an angle of 0.5°, and moves through Earth's sky 360° every 365 days, or ~1° per 24 hours, so it would occult background objects for about 12 hours.
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Last edited by Daigoro; 09-09-2018 at 12:32 AM.
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Old 09-08-2018, 11:53 PM   #1009
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If Traveler-rise and traveler-set are auspicious times, then the hours just before and just after the eclipse could also break normal rules of EM spectrum stuff. Maybe magic gets "solar aspected," or maybe it's chaotic and dangerous to use in the intervals.
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Old 09-09-2018, 01:22 AM   #1010
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

Further on the inclination of the orbital plane- it would have to be within 0.5° of Earth's orbital plane to have annual occultations. You wouldn't get any more annual occultations than you would get annual solar eclipses or transits of Venus. This calculator says Traveller would have an orbital period of 5000 years, so you'd only get 2 occultations in this period as it crosses Earth's orbital plane. Lunar occultation might be more likely though, as you get 13 chances of that per year, though it'd still have to be in a near ecliptic plane.
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