Constellations and the Night Sky

[Enkidoh]

Well, the 'New Beginning' trailer sure didn't show it anywhere, and let's face it - Bahamut blew it into a billion pieces that rained down over Eorzea as fiery rain, so yeah, I seriously doubt it's going to make some kind of return in ARR.

[Rex]

As an astronomy buff in the real lifes, I was growing to wonder if Eorzea had any form of categorization with its night sky. Are there constellations? Do any stars have names? Can we see other planets and what are they named? Are they based on myths, or real life sources? Do different races/clans and city states have different constellations?

I know it's not critical to the story or anything, but I think such details lend a modicum of detail to the culture of the world. Pretty much every major civilization on Earth had categorized and partitioned the night sky in this manner even before the advent of telescopes. So why would Eorzea be any different?

(I'll check my complaints about certain physical impossibilities of lunar phase movement across the sky at the door. That's a post for another time.)

I've been under the impression that each of the 12 would have their own constellation in the sky. The sanctum of the twelve led me to believe that. Like the zodiac. Maybe choosing one during character creation will have benefits this time. Well it has to because of the sanctum...

Also. Judging by the fine print at the bottom of your post...will there be no moon phases?!

[Rex]

Is Dalamud still visible in 2.0?

I thought we, you know, sorted that whole business out.

Did you not see it explode as Bahamut destroyed the world and made us all jump five years to a new world? ;p

[Almalexia]

Did you not see it explode as Bahamut destroyed the world and made us all jump five years to a new world? ;p

I did.

But did they?

[Anonymoose]

I think they're just trying to characterize the society as established, and thus probably older than the Calamity. If that's the case, why remove it? We don't Photoshop old since-destroyed landmarks out of old movies.

[ArkhamNative]

I think they're just trying to characterize the society as established, and thus probably older than the Calamity. If that's the case, why remove it? We don't Photoshop old since-destroyed landmarks out of old movies.

That's one of the reasons I chose the image for my sig. To me it says, "I remember when..."

But then again, some of us have been watching since long before "when"...

[murf]

My intent in including Dalamud was for a number of reasons. One of which, as Moose stated, to characterize the society in a role-playish manner as 'established' from the days before Bahamut popped out. Such a significant event would not be easily forgotten, least of all by a group of people who would make hobby out of observing the sky.

Secondly, and the main reason I included Dalamud in the logo, was because of its prominence as a celestial object of importance to story and the community. With the gap still on-going, the iconography of Dalamud is still fresh in our minds. Even though it may be gone, we still remember it. It could be akin to something like the logo including a comet or meteor/shooting star that is only temporary in its appearance.

[Myranda]

Pretty much covered by others already but yeah, I also included it because presumably we've been around since before it all went down. There was even some NPC dialog (sorry, I don't remember by who or where) that stated some scholars believed Dalamud to be getting larger because of it getting closer, though it made it out like those scholars were in the minority and most people thought it was physically growing. So those scholars would basically be us.

Also, it's a pop of color.

[Myranda]

Time to revive this thread with a new bit of info now that beta screenshots are allowed! Here is our conclusive proof that Eorzea is at approximately 30°N: I took a time series of screenshots and then stacked them together to make startrails and then measured the angle those made from vertical while facing east, which gives the latitude. I figured this would be more reliable than trying to measure the angle directly to a hypothetical pole star due to foreground obstruction of the idealized horizon and projection effects of a sphere onto a flat surface (i.e. my monitor).



Those pics are from Thanalan, but I had done the exact same analysis for Gridania with the same results, so as expected it hasn't actually been coded for each region to have its own separate latitude as far as the night sky is concerned. That being the case, I'm inclined to take the measurement as an average for all of Eorzea/Aldenard, so more northerly regions such as Dravania will be further north than 30° and Thanalan would be a bit closer to the equator than 30°.

[Catapult]

Time to revive this thread with a new bit of info now that beta screenshots are allowed! Here is our conclusive proof that Eorzea is at approximately 30°N: I took a time series of screenshots and then stacked them together to make startrails and then measured the angle those made from vertical while facing east, which gives the latitude. I figured this would be more reliable than trying to measure the angle directly to a hypothetical pole star due to foreground obstruction of the idealized horizon and projection effects of a sphere onto a flat surface (i.e. my monitor).



Those pics are from Thanalan, but I had done the exact same analysis for Gridania with the same results, so as expected it hasn't actually been coded for each region to have its own separate latitude as far as the night sky is concerned. That being the case, I'm inclined to take the measurement as an average for all of Eorzea/Aldenard, so more northerly regions such as Dravania will be further north than 30° and Thanalan would be a bit closer to the equator than 30°.

Is it just me, or has the Moon moved the same amount as the stars? This would suggest that Hydaelyn's Moon is in a very interesting type of orbit.