January/February 2012 Lite Challenge Entry: Tribal Compass

[jbgibson]

OUR moon rises same way as our sun :-).

Retrograde orbit = comes up t'other way.

Maybe this culture's compass notes which way the moon rises 'cause worshipers need to know, or 'cause it's got a honkin' big magnetic field and on cloudy nights navigation is tricky w/o compensation for moonrise. Maybe THIS moon is a freakin' evil battlestation, unbeknownst to the tribal types, and some times it rises east, some west... and the rose is more of a TIME indicator than a directional one.

Hmm, considering the tattoo angle - maybe it goes not on parchment but on PEOPLE. This on somebody's back, one is supposed to orient the dude when moon is <there> and sun <yonder>, and when you do, he.... what? I dunno what happens. It's your tribe, not mine.

Now I dare you to do a tattoo map to match the rose :-).

[Hai-Etlik]

OUR moon rises same way as our sun :-).

Retrograde orbit = comes up t'other way.

Our moon rises because of Earth's rotation, not the Moon's orbit. A retrograde orbit would actually make things worse, it would rise (slightly) faster in the same direction. To rise backwards a moon would have to have a sub-synchronous prograde orbit. I'm pretty sure Phobos is the only moon in the solar system that does that, and it's absolutely tiny. I'm not an astrophysicist, but I think a large moon couldn't survive that low, unless the planet has a very, very long day (which would make geosynchronous orbit wider). So a backwards moon would look more like a fast moving planet, than our moon AFAIK.

[atpollard]

I suppose it would be out of place to say that I just plain like the sun and moon as decorations on it.

I figured that, for some reason, they care about the rising of the sun and the setting of the moon ... and then I just moved on to admire how north was differentiated from the other directions.

[Elzevir]

Wow, i didn't expect so much comments about this compass !

I don't really know if i should explain... maybe i'll just let you talk about it, and leave it a mystery.


...No ?

@atpollard:
I figured that, for some reason, they care about the rising of the sun and the setting of the moon ...

Precisely: i draw it with the idea that this could be a compass for people who don't really care about north and south : their only references are the sun and the moon. Knowing the sun/moon course, the others directions are known by deduction.

@Hai-Etlik:
Also, both the sun and the moon rise in the east, the entire sky "rises" in the east and moves west.

In fact, i had in mind that for those tribes, "the moon appears when the sun sets".

Besides, i like the idea of drawing a whole map entirely in this style. Maybe later.

[razcor]

Wow, i didn't expect so much comments about this compass !

In fact, i had in mind that for those tribes, "the moon appears when the sun sets".

Yeah, this totally fits with my idea of ​​tribal spirit, with strong roots in the ground and eyes to the sky. I love it.

[lostatsea]

If you look under Hai-Etlik Avatar you'll see he listed his location as a Longitude and Latitude. The points he makes are valid when applied to traditional Quasi Realistic Maps. They do not necessarily apply in ALL cases. On my T.T.O.C. The compass rose on the map doesn't align with the N S E W of the compass. The Taurians are so Egotistical that the Roses on their maps point to the center of the universe : Their Capital city of "TAURUS" Of course this makes the use of one of their maps by a foreigner a Total Nightmare. But lesser Beings shouldn't be in possession of their maps anyways !! Off a Traditional Map go with what you feel. This forum is basically fantasy oriented anyways !!!

[Hai-Etlik]

If you look under Hai-Etlik Avatar you'll see he listed his location as a Longitude and Latitude. The points he makes are valid when applied to traditional Quasi Realistic Maps. They do not necessarily apply in ALL cases. On my T.T.O.C. The compass rose on the map doesn't align with the N S E W of the compass. The Taurians are so Egotistical that the Roses on their maps point to the center of the universe : Their Capital city of "TAURUS" Of course this makes the use of one of their maps by a foreigner a Total Nightmare. But lesser Beings shouldn't be in possession of their maps anyways !! Off a Traditional Map go with what you feel. This forum is basically fantasy oriented anyways !!!

I don't really see what point there is in drawing attention to my location.

The issue is really the other points of the rose. A simple north arrow just indicates north and is fine for a map that preserves north even if it doesn't preserve other directions. A cross shaped rose indicates that at least the four cardinal directions are preserved. That's why it's cross shaped. It's still rather confusing to put one on a map that doesn't preserve all directions, but there is at least some small justification for its use in such a case (But not in cases where the cardinal directions are not preserved). As soon as you add any other points to the rose it becomes an indication that all bearings are preserved. That is what it means and why it is the shape it is. A capital city direction indicator would not be a compass rose, and drawing it to look like one would be stupendously confusing; why would it then be indicating all those other directions?

My only real issue with the rose is that the cardinal direction indicators (the lines) are less precise than the others (the dots), which rather defeats the point of having the others in the first place. Other than that I've just been responding to the utterly bizarre attempts to justify this by saying what amounts to "it's not really a compass rose". I just tried to provide some constructive criticism, and people went crazy. It would be like if I pointed out that a scale bar was a bit uneven, and then a horde of people jump in to claim that this scale bar isn't really meant to indicate scale but can be used for all kinds of other things in which case the unevenness isn't really a problem.

[lostatsea]

The point of the reference to your location is that although You didn't get down to Sec. Simply putting a town and or country isn't precise enough for you. You are all about precision and appear to have some formal knowledge of real world Cartography. Many of the rest of us don't know The textbook requirements of a "compass Rose" and as such assume it to be more of a ornamentation that points out general directions. Often in more informal maps it doesn't have more than the four cardinal directions and maybe the additional four in between. If you are more into the art aspect than the utilitarian aspect of a map you tend to worry less about absolute precision. Your entry I assume fulfills both conditions as it is precise , artistic and presumably fulfills all the requirements to be called a Compass rose. I wouldn't know ,I don't have any formal education in Cartography.
Seeing as I will never go to any of the places I map I don't think I'll have any problems with my inaccuracies . That being said If you would care to post some reference sites for "Basic" Cartography Information I am sure many of us would like to pick up some of the Basics.