Greetings Ye Fellow Cartographers !

[jwbjerk]

Ok, i'm looking through it, and it's kinda clumsy since i have to copy/paste the text into a translate webpage, and then all the formating, links, and context are gone, but i can get by-- though if i stupidly misunderstand something that's my excuse.

The first thing i notice is that you have an impressive amount of astronomical detail, conjunctions, eclipses and so forth.

* I assume you've calculated out these orbits carefully, but i don't see any information on your primary sun's mass-- this is a necessary bit of info for calculating orbits.

Based on the diameter, (2'345'000 km) assuming it's an average main sequence star, i come up with 2.05 solar masses, which according to my charts should be a Class F star, which is not more orange than our sun, but in fact, more white. Such a star would be about 12 times brighter than the sun. The brightness of your sun, and of course the distance of your world determines how much solar energy your planet gets, and thus if it is habitable.

i realize that different sources make different estimations on the masses of various types of stars, maybe this is the result of an equally valid scientist's estimate, but this is different enough, that you might want to recheck your math. Or perhaps this isn't a main sequence star, and you have another type in mind.


* Planets 2-4 are translated "sparkling planets", but they are gas giants right? If so you might want to look at this and the embedded link for information on the probable colors of gas giants in various circumstances.


* The various moons seem to have colors chosen at random, which is fine, if that's how you want to do it, but there are definite patterns (at least in this solar system's moon) that relate the color of a moon to the substance it is made out of and the distance from the sun. Purple and green moons may not be impossible, but they are certainly outside our experience.

Here's an expept from a useful, but unfortunately offline resouce:

And, of course, there's the moon's colour, which is largely a function of what the moon is made of. Moons may be:
Rocky, like the Moon and several other moons in the Solar System. Rocky moons appear greyish and cratered.
Icy, like Jupiter's Europa. Icy moons will be white and bright, since ice reflects light much better than rocks.
Volcanic, like Jupiter's Io. These moons will be red, orange and yellow.
Gaseous, like Saturn's Titan. Titan itself is orange, although most other colours are possible.

(Cached here by the wayback machine)

* What do the starbursts over the currents on the climate map represent?


That's enough for one post. I hope it's useful, and that you don't end up having to redo very much...

[Guldaroth]

Very interesting, thanks !
I'll check tomorrow if I can answer all this but it seems that I'll have to redo numerous things if I want scientific correctness...

Thanks a lot again for all your attention !

[jwbjerk]

but it seems that I'll have to redo numerous things if I want scientific correctness...

Don't throw it all away! It probably possible to fit in a scientific accuracy while leaving a lot of details intact... it's just a question of which details you are most willing to change, or what would be the most work to redo, or where you just want to say, "this is close enough."

[Guldaroth]

So... First of all thanks again for your quick review and for your useful links !

I must say that we'll never pretend to create a full realistic universe for two major reasons: I (we) don't have the knowledge to do all the stuff really precisely and second, we wanted to stay in a fantasy world (Note that if we wanted pure science we wouldn't have create new mineral material such as new elements for the periodic table)
But, I'm still thinking about realism and you pointed out some problems of consistency. The best exemple is that we used a simplified solar system to have the astronomical simulation easier to calculate. Look at the orbits we made, they're almost all perfect circles... This isn't even possible in real but it was a question of "feasibility".
To say it quick, we decided few things and we tried to bring the most coherent elements to sustain these choices the way we could.
The real question would be this one, do you think it's even possible to create an acceptable univers with those predefined elements ?

• A colonizable planet with three moons (and one would be as black as possible to hide the stars behind it)
• A second sun really far away that could be seen as a distant star which moves really slowly
• A planet with a strong orbital excentricity to have it doing a major eclipse regularly (for exemple every 20 years) upon all the lightened hemisphere of another planet
etc...

PS: the starbursts on the climate map would be the regions where the seas are potentialy rough. And for the sun, I must admit I didn't really check it out. I will have this redefined as soon as possible...
For better realism, you should probably check the mineral materials and the plants (I got two friends in Biochemistry and Pharmacology )

Thanks again


PPS:

Don't throw it all away!

I won't, nothing like this will ever be perfect science... And it would represent to much time flushed away.
But I'm still confident about some corrections.

[jwbjerk]

I must say that we'll never pretend to create a full realistic universe for two major reasons: I (we) don't have the knowledge to do all the stuff really precisely and second, we wanted to stay in a fantasy world (Note that if we wanted pure science we wouldn't have create new mineral material such as new elements for the periodic table)
But, I'm still thinking about realism and you pointed out some problems of consistency.

Ah, you should have said it's a fantasy world from the start... If it's a fantasy world, and you are inventing elements and so forth, i wouldn't be worried about many of the things i commented on-- but consistency is still important, and figuring out the implications of the new laws you've made for your universe.

The best exemple is that we used a simplified solar system to have the astronomical simulation easier to calculate. Look at the orbits we made, they're almost all perfect circles... This isn't even possible in real but it was a question of "feasibility".

In that case i wouldn't worry about it. You can redefine the laws of orbital mechanics and solar-fusion without messing anything else up. In fact, sometimes with fantasy it's better to diverge from reality in a bold, obvious way, so readers aren't wondering if it was a mistake, or a purposeful divergence from our known reality. For instance just go ahead and proclaim that all orbits are perfectly circular-- except for your eccentric planet which is an exception due to some significant magical or cosmological reason. As you say, it makes the math easier.

The real question would be this one, do you think it's even possible to create an acceptable univers with those predefined elements ?

• A colonizable planet with three moons (and one would be as black as possible to hide the stars behind it)

Sure if your are inventing elements, no problem. Or you could devise some magical cataclysm that turned it black (assuming you have magic)

• A second sun really far away that could be seen as a distant star which moves really slowly

I think astronomers consider this scenario unlikely-- not the second star thing, that's really common-- but that a habitable planet could be in such a solar system. I think part of the reason is based on theories of star/planet formation, most of which would have also considered some of the interesting extrasolar planets we've been discovering impossible or unlikely too.

• A planet with a strong orbital excentricity to have it doing a major eclipse regularly (for exemple every 20 years) upon all the lightened hemisphere of another planet

In a real solar system the rotational speed (for all practical purposes) is based solely on the mass of the star and the distance of the planet. I don't know how easily your desired eclipse could be achieved (you would have to play with the numbers), but in the case of your scenario, i wouldn't necessarily worry about it.