Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: arsmith@nyx.cs.du.edu (Alan Smith) Subject: Re: ADMIN: The Nexus System Message-ID: <1993Sep4.061138.28268@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> References: <25ttff$hbm@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> Date: Sat, 4 Sep 93 06:11:38 GMT ADMIN: This is *not* my adress. It's a long story. Send email to arsmith@lamar.colostate.edu In article hutch@ibeam.intel.com (Steve Hutchison) writes: >albert@chain.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu (Rick Jones) writes: >>Proposal for the Nexus Solar System: >>Size and Shape: Nexus is a spherical planet about the same size and >>distance from the sun as Earth. The Sun is a star, just like the Earth's >>sun. >Fine, as long as the sun and the stars are also manifestations in the >physical world of a more magical reality. Which leads one to the >next point: the moons and planets are the representations of other >gods and (as in _every_ human culture) should be named for them in >any system of nomenclature where tradition is preserved. So far so good. > >>Moons: Nexus has three moons, Primus, Secondus and Tertius. Primus is a >>large white airless sphere, similar to the Earth's moon in shape, >>appearance, and period. Secondus is a much smaller sphere, which orbits >>Primus in an orbit perpendicular Nexus' orbital plane. Tertius is an >>irregular rock even smaller than Secondus. Tertius trails Primus in it's >>orbital plane around 6 hours behind it. (During the day, the Sun obscures >>Tertius.) Astronomers believe that Tertius is a piece of space junk, >>perhaps a comet, that was caught in Nexus' gravitation pull. > >I expect it would take careful observation to realize that Tertius is >even there -- and Secundus is clearly an artificial object, or was >put there by magic. Otherwise it would be perturbed out of the orbit >you describe in about 5000 years tops... > Several ancient civilizations would be able to spot tertius as a moon, Sparlax and Cathay spring to mind as being likely candidates. Concievably Andria on the West Continent, as well. Sparlax and Cathay, at least would make their discoveries independantly. (I'm basing this on aribic and Egyptian discoveries in astronomy, long before the telescope, which actually should have been invented by now.) Question: Should Secundus line up with Primus at certain times? Like, line up it's orbital plane on the line from Primus to Nexus twice a month, then eclipse or be eclipsed at odd intervals? >>Other Planets/Celestial Features: >Now these names are cool - called after the gods of orbital mechanics... >>Galler: A large planet with over ten moons, the largest, Copern, an >>Earth-like moon. (Jupiter) >>Kepleo: A large planet farther out from the sun than Nexus. It's much more >>massive, has a series of rings, and many small moons. It's atmosphere is >>primarily methane with some other nasty bits. (essentially, Saturn) >>Other suggestions I heard were for a Desert Planet and a Cloud-Covered >>Science-Fiction Venus. Newt'n: a smallish bright blue-green planet (the color is due to oxidized copper, not water/bio like earth and nexus) fairly close outside nexus' orbit. Largish polar caps. (mars) Braha: A completely grey planet near nexus' orbit, but inside. Has one moon, Tych. Greyness thought to be cloud cover. (venus) I also think that we should only be able to make out up to a half a dozen of the moons of Galler and Keplo. >>I'm volunteering to be the Royal Astronomer of Nexus, so once this gets >>hammered out, I'll post it semi-regularly. Welcome to the club... > >Where is Nexus in its Galaxy? Is the whole plane as promiscuous as Nexus >in terms of allowing gateways? How big and old is the Galaxy? What do the >skies look like at night? That last question could take years to hammer out. We don't even know really what Generica looks like at night. (Or in the daytime for that matter) Well, I suppose we should come up with our great ideas for constellations now...