Theories of Astronomy

My friends and family,


It has been quite some time since I have devoted time to research, philosophy, translations and the heavens. Since becoming Magistrate of Sealladh, raising and maintaining our merry band of great friends and ensuring it's safety, friendship and tightly woven nature has pushed my passions for the human search for truth and enlightenment further away from my priorities. Of course, while well worth it, it has slowed the progressions I was making on some research I have been conducting and recording results on since I was very young. As of late, with the return of my dear Psykhie to us from her journies, I've been able to devote more time after sundown to a particular research I had been working on, continuing the work I had been doing since I was a child.

I've always recorded the positions of the brighter stars in the heavens in correlation with the seasons and fullness of the moon. I've studied the effects and theorized causes for the illumination of, and the eclipsing of, the moon's glare which so brightly lights up our sky at night. Using all the notes I've collected and recorded through the years, as well as information from the old texts I've translated that we found in the ruined Asuran city we excavated our crystals from, I've began to intensify my studies. The ancient Asurans called these studies of the heavens 'Astrometry', as they tried to measure and map the seemingly astronomically large void above us and it's many stars. Later cultures and descendants of these earlier Astrometry researchers broadened this study by having it encompass the reasonings behind night and day, winter and summer, spring and fall. Why those who journey to lands beyond their home experience a shift in their perceivement in time of day and how that correlates to the location of our land and the rise and set of our sun and moon. This broader research we will call 'Astronomy.'

Based on the data I have recorded, I have struck several theories regarding the reasoning behind the rise and set of our sun, the shifting of our moon from a small sickle in the sky to a bright, broad ball with darkened spots that we see as the month progresses, and have used this to make a prediction about an upcoming lunar event that should prove my biggest theory - that the rock we all stand on, the very Earth we inhabit, is the cause for the phases of the moon.

My theory goes like this.

The Earth, as we all know, is the center of all astronomical entities. All that exists within the heavens rotates at varying speeds around us. But these explanations never fully explain why the sun raises and lowers from view as day turns to night, not just moves away. For if it simply moved in a pure circle around us, it'd always be day time here on earth, fully illuminated year round by the sun's brightness. My theory contradicts the belief that the sun raises and lowers as it rotates around us. My research and study of the phases of the moon show clearly that it is us, our very rock in the heavens, that raises and lowers along with the sun and moon. Call me crazy, but let me explain.

The sun and moon, as they rotate around us, cause a night and day effect by the Earth shifting between their own raising and lower as they rotate around us. Because of this, the Earth, depending on it's exact location on each night of the month, blocks the light of the sun at particular angles. This light of the sun, based on the location of the Earth, Sun and Moon, is what illuminates the moon in such odd shapes at varying points of the month. Earlier in the month, the angles of the raised or lowered Earth permits only fragments of the sun's light to light up the moon, while the rest of the light is blocked from the moon by the underside of our flat rock we call Earth.

This explanation, while still only a theory, is a far deeper and meaningful explanation of how and why night and day works as they do, and why the moon's shape varies so much during the month.

Along with this theory however, I've used mathematical calculations to predict the next lunar phenomenon we call an eclipse. When the moon slowly becomes completely darkened in the night sky. My theory explains this event entirely, as the rare occasion when the Earth fully blocks the light of the sun from illuminating the moon. That the darkening of the moon is actually the Earth's shadow moving slowly across the face of the moon!

Using my calculations, the next phenomenon like this should occur within the next month. I will finalize my calculations and try to more precisely predict the day this happens. I will ask all my friends to be there in our guild city as we watch my theory become proven at least in part through my prediction, and celebrate this final understanding of our sky by watching the lunar eclipse together.

Cally.

((Basically, I'm just using this long post as a reason to gather everyone together in RP and have some fun. It's also part of Callesto's character to do such researches and be the theorist and philosopher she was before I began to dedicate so much of my time and RP to raising Sealladh. It will be good fun! I'll post a day and time for the gathering in the next week.))