{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/637",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 637,
    "subject": "5H Star Hunt",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1998-05-19T02:03:47+00:00",
    "last": "1998-05-19T14:15:00+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0011-0071@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Robert Borski",
        "address": "rborski at coredcs.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-05-19T02:03:47+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) re: 5H Star Hunt",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "mantis wrote:\n\n\"Hey, Cerberus-heads!\n\n\"Let's find the star of Saint Anne/Saint Croix!  Let's work out the\nother planets in the system!\"\n\nFrankly, mantis, I believe you did a very nice job of scoping out the more\npertinent details, but I do have a few comments.\n\n\"1.  We are told that Marsh aged \"20 years Newtonian\" in his trip,\nsuggesting that the star is within 20 lightyears of Sol (since the\nship would seem to be travelling sublight).\"\n\nActually, Marsh \"aged\" only six months, still being in his early 20s when\nhe makes planetfall. Twenty years Newtonian have passed, but apparently the\nstarcrossing travelers are placed in some sort of biostasis, where aging is\nmuch diminished. (Mrs. Blount, in \"V.R.T,\" mentions being \"put to sleep.\")\nShe also mentions that the trip from Earth took 21 years, suggesting either\nSt. Croix - St.Anne are galactically further at this time or improvements\nin star-travel propulsion have taken place since her ship left. Mrs. Blount\nalso tells us, \"Both our worlds remained unknown when planets more distant\nfrom Earth had been colonized for decades,\" hinting at perhaps some sort of\nastronomical obscurity or deviation from normal (i.e., in terms of\npotentially hospitable worlds) .\n\n\"3.  We are told that one local year on St. Anne is 402 days . . . do\nwe have any hint as to the length of the local day?  (This can be\nused to calculate orbital distance for St. A/St. C around their star,\nwhich in turn can give a hint as to stellar class, etc.)\"\n\nApparently, the day is also somewhat longer--at least if we are to trust\nMarsh's initial observations. Early on, in his journals (p.140), he cites\nthe \"too-long days and stretched nights\" of St. Anne, suggesting they are\nlengthier than what he is used to on Earth. Disappointingly, however, Wolfe\nnever indicates how the extra 37 days of the Annese year are apportioned.\nBoth Marsh and Number Five utilize the imported Terran calendar, referring\nto actual specific months, but not whether these have a few extra days (3\nwould work, giving us months of 33-35 days) or whether a new month itself\nhas been invented.\n\nRe: \"Shadow Child (with \"two bright star eyes\")\"\n\nIs \"Shadow Child\" with \"two bright star eyes\" how it's listed in your\nedition of 5TH HEAD? The Scribners edition shows \"Shadow Children\" and \"two\npairs of bright eyes.\" Also, since Marsh can no longer find them in their\nusual place (p.154), might it/they possibly be either paired planets or\nmoons, rather than stars?\n\nMight not Fomalhaut also refer to the piscine half of Thousand Feelers and\nthe Fish, with one of the more local nebulae (Eagle, Lagoon, Trifid?)\ncompising the Thousand Feelers half?\n\nOne last possible clue: the gravitational attraction of St. Croix on its\nsister planet is powerful enough to produce 15 foot tides. (What this\nportends I have no clue--the last time I delved into matters astronomical\nwe only had 8 planets, though now that Pluto has been declassified, at\nleast in non-Disney systems...<g>)\n\n\nPersonally, if Wolfe did have an actual star in mind, I'd like to believe\nit adhered to one of the etymological conventions he used in FIFTH HEAD.\ni.e., religious (St. Anne), French (Port-Mimizon) or lupine (#5=Wolfe).\nGiven also that there are at least three prominent astronomers named Wolf,\nand one actually being French (C.J.E. Wolfe, co-discoverer of Wolf-Rayet\nstars), I'd like to cast my vote in favor of \nWolf 294 (though the Shadow Children supposition might augur a multiple\nstar system).\n\nRobert Borski"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0011-0072@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "m.driussi",
        "address": "m.driussi at genie.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-05-19T14:15:00+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) re: 5H Star Hunt",
      "in_reply_to": "<urth-v0011-0071@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Robert Borski,\n\nRe: Newtonian vs. biological.  Right, I didn't mention the biological\ntime dilation because it is a bit ambiguous and doesn't directly\naddress the distance issue.  Said dilation could be due to a\nnear-lightspeed velocity of between 0.999 and 0.9999c; or, as you say\nand the text alludes, it could be just a side effect of hibernation\nrather than \"suspended animation.\"  If we knew the mile-long\nstarships were using Nearly As Fast As Light drives, then we'd also\nhave a better idea of how far the star is.\n\nExcellent point re: hidden/overlooked nature of the star.  If\noverlooked, then an M type star is more likely--but an M-star with a\nlong year like that, hmmm, that causes problems.\n\nRe: longer local day.  So let's ballpark it--48 hour days would be\nmuch longer; how about 30 hour days?\n\nRe: \"Shadow Child\" with \"two bright star eyes,\" in truth my notes are\npretty bad, lacking even page numbers, but I managed to find this one\nbecause it is close to the beginning of \"`A Story'\": \"When morning\ncame the sun would rise in Fever; but sisterworld, whose great blue\ndisk now showed a thin paring above the encompassing trees, obscured\nthe two bright stars, the eyes, that were all that could be seen of\nThe Shadow Child\" (Ace paperback, p. 87).\n\nRe: Thousand Feelers and the Fish.  This makes me think of those sea\nmonsters, like Hydra, Draco (starry sea), and Cetus.  Cetus would put\nus right next to Pisces, but yeah, that's Fishes not Fish (of the\nSouth).\n\nRe: 15 foot tides, a good datapoint for the separation of the twin\nworlds.\n\n=mantis="
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}