Re: MotM: Nine Plate - day and night patterns

    Ack, sorry about being so quiet lately, but something came up that
required my undivided attention.  Finished it this morning, so I'm going to
spend today answering all the email that's piled up.

> I absolutely love this moon. But like Stephen Hawking I have a brief
question of time...

    :)  Sure, no problem.

> How do the days work on this planet? If the "poles" were tilted over
slightly (like the
> Earth) the sunlight would come onto them something like this:

    Wow, you analyzed day & night on this moon far more than I did :)

>
> North - South (Grainlund - Glachar)
>
>     (-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-)
>
> \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ (sun rays)

    This is pretty much how I see it.  Reflected light provides "daylight"
for layers in the shadow of their own plates, while the backsides of the
plates are far enough away to have "night".  Some areas might be eternally
dark, due in part to pillars and plates blocking all sunlight.

> Maybe you could write a bit more about this for a follow up article. It
might be useful if
> you could get someone to make a simple animation for Beyond the Moons when
you get Static
> to put this up. An animated gif that doesn't spin too fast would be a very
good visual
> aid.

    If I can get a chance I might try, but I've got a backlog of stuff to do
that's a mile long, due to my own insanity :)

> I think that most non-spherical worlds and moons could do with visual aids
to show how
> their days work. I don't think people instinctively comprehend what light
on something
> like Nine Plate or Torus (from Practical Planetology) would be like. Is
there anyone on
> the list that would be able to make an animation of this (assuming Adam
and Static want
> one)?

    I would have no idea how to set something like that up.  Anyone want to
give it a shot?

Adam