Hey, I'm making a calendar for my campaign, which I can use to make notes for what happened where and when. I'm trying to automate the moon phases, but I may be finding a little trouble. That 11-year "in line" that creates the big storms. When was the last one?
I've initially placed the World Storm as one of them (year 0), because it was convenient and made sense. Maybe moons' gravity acting on the magical energy helped cause the Sundering, blah blah. I sort of assumed that these 11-year conjunctions were when all three moons were full (or new) together. That's not so, as my spreadsheet math tells me. This may have just been a bad assumption on my part.
And when you say that a moon's cycle is 27 days, do you mean that it takes 27 days to return to the same point, or just to the point right before it? If it's the point right before it, then two of the moons can fit nicely in line with the weeks and months. If not, then then it's not so pretty.
Thanks!
When I was working out my calendar, I assumed it would be measured from Full to Full, being the synodic period, the one more easily noted on the ground. The siderial period (measured relative to the stallar background) would be different.
You know, whatever works out the best. If you end up doing a bunch of research and math and computing and you find that a tiny adjustment makes the moon orbits match up better, go ahead and make that tiny adjustment. Assume whatever you need to assume. And then, publish the results so we can all see. In honesty, a minor correction on the lunar cycles here and there won't affect the world or any of my plot lines at all. So, feel free to make some assumptions.
I would love to see your calendar when you are done with it.
Right now it's nothing too amazing, just a functional Excel (OpenOffice) file. I'm working on making it a little more aesthetically pleasing
I used a PHP script to generate mine. Basically, for acth day, it displays the current phase for each moon. I could use it to predict stuff like conjunctions and eclipses. I do assume that Mektor is large enough to produce a total solar eclipse .. not sure about the others.
Incidently, it is interesting that Night Jewel's orbit is in step with Mektor.