Where are we? (part 3)
May. 28th, 2005 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kengrpart 1
part 2
Ok, you'll find a slight rise to camp on. Maybe 30 feet or so above the surrounding terrain, but very gentle slope.
Nothing to burn except grass, brush and dried dung. Not that there's a lot of the latter.
I shall assume that the group sets some sentries and watches. :-)
Some noises of animals moving about in the grasses are heard but nothing gets too close.
At some point in the night someone will notice two things.
That fan of light in the west had been narrowing since sunset. And getting dimmer rather fast at first.
The second thing that was noticed may be more disturbing. Someone had tried to mark time by noting where some stars were with respect to such landmarks (mostly distant hills and peaks) as could be seen in the dark.
Hours later the stars are in the same positions as near as anyone can tell.
Oh yeah, in the directions where you can see a "distant" horizon, the stars seem to thin out a lot as you get within a few degrees of the horizon. And the western horizon is as bad as the northern one.
added later with the clear skies it *does* get cold at night.
part 2
Ok, you'll find a slight rise to camp on. Maybe 30 feet or so above the surrounding terrain, but very gentle slope.
Nothing to burn except grass, brush and dried dung. Not that there's a lot of the latter.
I shall assume that the group sets some sentries and watches. :-)
Some noises of animals moving about in the grasses are heard but nothing gets too close.
At some point in the night someone will notice two things.
That fan of light in the west had been narrowing since sunset. And getting dimmer rather fast at first.
The second thing that was noticed may be more disturbing. Someone had tried to mark time by noting where some stars were with respect to such landmarks (mostly distant hills and peaks) as could be seen in the dark.
Hours later the stars are in the same positions as near as anyone can tell.
Oh yeah, in the directions where you can see a "distant" horizon, the stars seem to thin out a lot as you get within a few degrees of the horizon. And the western horizon is as bad as the northern one.
added later with the clear skies it *does* get cold at night.
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 03:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 03:26 am (UTC)The grass and plants on the east side of the rise seem to be shorter, and of shade loving types...
no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 06:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 08:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 09:52 am (UTC)I'm sure that I'll eventually find other "oops" stuff in my descriptions. But I'm keeping true to the concept even if I may have a few details off by a bit.
In fact one calculation I just made says that I may need some handwavium in the mix in addition to the unobtanium that I started with. :-)
Time to dig out the spreadsheet...
no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 10:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-29 11:59 pm (UTC)Handwavium is "Yeah, we're ignoring a couple of physical laws for the story". Most FTL drives fall into this category.
Technobabble is "ignore the man behind the curtain". :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-30 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-03 04:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-03 05:20 am (UTC)