The Apu-Punchau Eclipse

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 10 Jun 2008, 16:30 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:30:10 -0700
Subject: (urth) The Apu-Punchau Eclipse
In-Reply-To: <484E96F1.1010805 at io.com>
References: <cf4.2e47ed06.357fd706 at aol.com> <484E96F1.1010805 at io.com>
Message-ID: <1f7617370806100930j27eed455j2f0108135077d988 at mail.gmail.com>

Tzadkiel's Ship -- *counting its sails*, is significantly bigger than a mile
in diameter, at least for purposes of shadow-casting. Solar sails have
to be (a) very very large and (b) quite opaque in order to be effective.

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 8:00 AM, Jeff Wilson <jwilson at io.com> wrote:
> StoneOx17 at aol.com wrote:
>>
>> In a message dated 6/10/2008 7:43:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>> davetallman at msn.com writes:
>>
>> "I have another possible explanation for  the eclipse. The exact
>> dimensions of the Ship aren't given, but could it  really be large enough to
>> shadow the Sun and let the stars be seen like  that? It would have to be
>> almost as big as the moon. Why couldn't the  eclipse be a normal one, caused
>> by the moon?"
>>  If the ship were a lot close than the moon, it could be a lot smaller and
>> shadow the sun.  If it were 3000 times closer (low earth orbit), it  could
>> be 3000 times smaller, or only around a mile in diameter.
>
> That would make it only about 80 miles up, a rapidly decaying orbit to be
> sure. It would have to have some form of lift to let it hover in place
> anyway, because at orbital speeds the eclipse would only last a second or
> less.
>
> --
> Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
> < http://www.io.com/~jwilson >
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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
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http://www.danehyoakes.com

I once absend-mindedly ordered Three Mile Island dressing in a
restaurant and, with great presence of mind, they brought Thousand
Island Dressing and a bottle of chili sauce. -- T. Pratchett

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