The Apu-Punchau Eclipse

Roy C. Lackey · 12 Jun 2008, 00:05 · from 2008-June.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:05:12 -0500
Subject: (urth) The Apu-Punchau Eclipse
Message-ID: <001d01c8cc1f$ff44a380$edcc4a0c at rclackey.stic.net>

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:

>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.

Dan'l is correct. The Ship has seven sides, the decks covered by "masts
beyond counting". (URTH, I, 2) Some of the masts are "separated by tens of
leagues at least". (I, 6) Many sails are improbably *huge*:

"Rising over the topmost sail as the New Sun of Urth
might someday rise above the Wall of Nessus (yet far, far
larger and more beautiful than even the New Sun can ever
be, just as that smallest and uppermost sail was an entire
continent of silver, compared to which the mighty Wall of
Nessus, a few leagues in height and a few thousand long,
might have been the tumbledown fence of a sheepfold),[...]
(XIV, 103)

The Ship's overall size has to be on a planetary scale.

This eclipse business just isn't that hard. All the Ship has to do is travel
in a straight line between the sun and Urth, at the appropriate distance to
achieve eclipse, and veer to one side to uncover the sun at the right
moment.

-Roy

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