NB Astronomy 401 *SPOILERS*

This thread is all about predicting alignments. I will try to keep all data in this post and up to date.

All data is for the current sky as of R26.

Note: Dates marked in white are dates I actually witness in-game.
Addition Note: Loosened criteria for white dates to now simply verify planets are where I expect them to be when I expect them to be there based on existing data.

Orbital Durations in NB Days.
Daedalus - 7
Blue/Honesty - 18 19
Yellow/Compassion - 16 17
Red/Valor - 12 13
Green/Justice - 11
Orange/Sacrifice - 3
Purple/Honor - 2 - Purple is an oddball in that it hits true north at midnight rather than noon like everyone else.
White/Spirituality - 21 29
Black/Humility - 24 23

Constellations by Month
Jan. Chalice/Honor
Feb. Tear/Sacrifice
Mar. Scales/Justice
Apr. Sword/Valor
May. Heart/Compassion
Jun. Hand/Honesty
Jul. Eth. Hed.
Aug. Bell/Courage
Sep. Candle/Love
Oct. Book/Truth
Nov. Crook/Humility
Dec. Ankh/Spirituality

Days at Apex\True North
Blue:
Jan 10 | Feb 1, 20 | Mar 11 | Apr 2, 21 | May 12 | Jun 3, 22 | Jul 13 | Aug 4, 23 | Sep 14 | Oct 5, 24 | Nov 15 | Dec 6, 25

Yellow: 17h
Jan 9, 26 | Feb 15 | Mar 4, 21 | April 10, 27 | May 16 | Jun 5, 22 | Jul 11, 28 | Aug 17 | Sep 6, 23 | Oct 12 | Nov 1, 18 | Dec 7, 24

Red: 13h
Jan 7, 20 | Feb 5, 18 | Mar 3, 16 | Apr 1, 14, 27 | May 12, 25 | Jun 10, 23 | Jul 8, 21 | Aug 6, 19 | Sep 4, 17 | Oct 2, 15, 28 | Nov 13, 26 | Dec 11, 24

Green: 11h
Jan 6, 17, 28 | Feb 11, 22 | Mar 5, 16, 27 | Apr 10, 21 | May 4, 15, 26 | Jun 9, 20 | Jul 3, 14, 25 | Aug 8, 19 | Sep 2, 13, 24 | Oct 7, 18 | Nov 1, 12, 23 | Dec 6, 17, 28

Orange: 3h
Jan. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26 | Feb. 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28 | Mar. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27
Apr. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26 | May. 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28 | Jun. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27
Jul. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26 | Aug. 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28 | Sep. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27
Oct. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26 | Nov. 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28 | Dec. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27

Purple: 2h
All even days.. but 12 hours out of sync with other orbits. So it can't be involved in major alignments.

White: 29h
Jan 15 | Feb 16 | Mar 17 | April 18 | May 19 | Jun 20 | Jul 21 | Aug 22 | Sep 23 | Oct 24 | Nov 25 | Dec 26

Black: 23h
Jan 12 | Feb 7 | Mar 2, 25 | Apr 20 | May 15 | Jun 10 | Jul 5, 28 | Aug 23 | Sep 18 | Oct 13 | Nov 8 | Dec 3, 26

Major Alignments:
Green + Red + Orange: Aug 19
Yellow + Green + Orange: Nov 1
Blue + Green + Orange: Dec 6
Red + Yellow + Orange: Dec 24 (479)

Minor Alignments
There are so many alignments involving Orange that they're not even worth mentioning. 21 of them actually. Other minor alignments are:

March 16: Red & Green
April 10: Yellow & Green
April 21: Blue & Green
April 27: Red & Yellow
May 12: Red & Blue
May 15: Green & Black
June 10: Red & Black
June 20: Green & White
June 22: Blue & Yellow
July 21: Red & White
Jul 28: Black & Yellow
August 23: Black & Blue
September 23: Yellow & White
December 26: Black & White

That's it. No other major alignments. Nothing involving Purple because its orbit is offset by 12 hours.. Which might be a good thing considering it would align on every even day alignment.

 

Ok Bowen, please bear with an old avatar here. My astronomy background is, well, less than yours....
When you say:

What do the colors represent ? Does Daedalus go Purple ?

 

The colors represent the virtues each planet represents. I might add that to the OP later on. Right now I'm just back to collecting data and suddenly I'm actually getting interested.

I just updated the OP based on when I think Red/Valor will hit true north and if that's accurate, Red and Orange will never be able to align there.. so now I'm getting curious cause tonight's observations mean I need to update my simulations and I'm curious what the results will be. Did the devs do this on purpose? Or did they purposefully offset some of the orbits not fully knowing the results?

Basically what these observations mean (among other things) is that a full planetary alignment cannot occur at true north. Can major planetary alignments even occur at all?

Just when I thought I had it all figured out I decided to do this and suddenly there's a bunch more to figure out.

 

according to my previous records..

Black hit true north on Apr 20th.. and I don't have any other dates so I'll work with that for the time being.

 

Further observation..

Planets with even hour orbits that are not at the true north on even days.. cannot align at true north with like orbits that hit true north on odd days.. ie Black w/ yellow or red.

 

Updated the OP.

 

Current black dates are definitely incorrect.. but I might not be able to be on long enough to verify so just making a note. Black spotted on the east horizon on Dec 21st. Which puts it passing true north around about Dec 26-28. I'll have to recalculate those numbers. White will be passing prior to that by a day or two.

I should be able to very these tonight after by their setting time.

Interestingly.. Jan 1st appears to be at 4pm PST (2pm CST or 8am GMT) Seems like an odd time for the turn of the year but.. whatever.

Edit: Expected setting times.. Black 8:30p White around between 5-6.. I hope.. but if I miss it that means it was probably between 4-5p. My numbers might be a day off but will be easy to correct by cross-checking with Orange. Actually, just going to assume right now white will be either Dec 24 or 27 (probably 27)

 

This is giving me a headache.. something screwy is going on here.

I visually confirmed a major alignment on Dec 24, 479 include Yellow, Orange and Red.

Red.. I am sure is a 12 hour orbit..

I'm looking at Red eclipsing the sun at noon on Jan 7th.. that's 11 hours.. not 12. It should be on Jan 8th on a 12 hour orbit.

Green should be on the 11 hour orbit.. I just confirmed Green's apex on Jan 6th.

So did I totally bork the orbital times on several planets or what? Yellow is looking like it's going to come up odd as well so I'm suddenly developing a certain trepidation regarding Blue.. Could Green, Yellow, Red & Blue ALL be wrong? By how much? Or is it actually buggy like how the sun pauses every day? Why am I putting myself through this? lol

Edit: Alright.. the dates say Red is the 11 hour orbit. Guess I really can't slack off here can I? All orbital durations to be confirmed in-game by confirming 2 or more dates. On that note.. Orange is on track for Jan 8th.

 

A terrifying thought crossed my mind.

What if the orbits - like the sun - "pause" for a while at noon? So that they are all N hours + 1 at the zenith?

That'd skew your data, but actually allow for relevant alignments at apex.

 

They do not pause at noon for an hour, as the faster ones have been seen whipping past the sun. However, that doesn't mean they do not pause in Britannia's umbra (when they are not visible). If that is the case, it would be impossible to observe.

 

I've thought about that.. but some of my numbers still being off is more plausible. But will know soon enough after collecting a few more dates just which patterns are followed by which planets.

Better I think to just look at it as just getting more and more accurate data. (I've had some sleep can you tell?)

At least the basic observations are sound.

Edit: OR.. something is buggy! lol Or I'm still screwing something up somewhere.. Red is hitting dates consistent with an 11 hour pattern.. but I'm about to confirm Green on target for Jan 17th.. after Jan 6th.. also an 11 hour pattern.. so if that were true the distance between these two should never change.. but I just found a screen shot with them together.

This.. could take awhile to figure out.. aren't you glad you're not the one doing it? lol

 

One is crossing mind as well.. what if the orbits aren't consistent throughout the year?

I managed to catch Red for a 3rd consecutive time.. Dec 24 to Jan 7.. 11 hours.. Jan 7 to Jan 20.. 13 hours! and I've got a screen shot from 476 at April 14 which disturbs me greatly.. because April 14th (476) and Dec 24th (479) as I recorded are 3 years apart.. but in the 11 hour pattern they should be 1 year apart!

and naturally Apr 14th isn't in the 12 hour pattern at all but Dec 24 and Jan 20 are.

 

Perhaps the combination when all 4 planets related to truth is in the truth constellation could be something
and similar for courage and love.

 

I've thought of every possible combination of alignments and constellations.. except for this! lol Nice.

So that would be
Blue + Purple + Green + White
Yellow + Orange + Green + White
Red + Orange + Purple + White

The problem being Purple alone is offset 12 hours from all other planets so it can't participate in major alignments as the sky is now.

 

Looking throe a old book about astrology probably is a couple more combinations to consider.
Seems for example 4 planets can form a square (that would mean only one of them can be seen)
Or a triangle.

We want to find combinations that happens but not to often nor to rare.

 

With the current orbits.. minor alignments happen every day. "Major alignments" also happen very frequently. But in discovering this latest complication with inconsistent orbits it's going to be harder to pin down.

Dec 24, 479 is a good example of a major alignment.. Red + Yellow + Orange.. If this were to happen in Feb (when the Tear is highest) it would be the idea Sacrifice alignment.

In theory, there could be any or all such virtue related alignments.

 

Just curious, does uptime/downtime/patching impact this at all or is it based on earth/server time? Until I saw your post I haven't paid attention to how time elapses in game compared to earth time.

 

Patching/server downtime shouldn't effect it all or it would throw off the timing.. that is all orbits are evenly divisible by 1 hour.. so midnight is always top of the hour.. noon is always bottom of the hour etc.

 

Update..

Just for those interested.. It seems that both Red and Yellow can't seem to decide how long their respective orbits are. I've ranted about Red.. Now Yellow which I thought had a 16 hour orbit.. I've recorded at Dec 24th.. and Jan 9th.. which is 13 hours.. but now it looks like it went by at Jan 25... which is a guess as I just missed it.. it looks to be about 2 hours past and it's Jan 27 now. So that's 16 hours again.

On the other hand Green seems to be on track to hit it's next scheduled apex. Orange and Purple have been consistent..

I'm curious to see if the Sacrifice alignment that happened on Dec 24 does it again on Feb 16 as predicted.

 

Observation: Well all the planets (apart from Purple) I thought had even hour orbits are showing consistent odd hours between recorded apex dates but there are still a few discrepancies.

Blue's orbit seems to be 19 hours.

Yellow is 17 hours but there is only 13 hours between Dec 24 and Jan 9

White is all over the place.. around 16 hours at one point and 29 hours at another.. even if the 29 hour span is 2 orbits that's still an average of 14.5 which is totally bizarre. Assuming some human error and the average is 15 hours across the board probably makes the most sense but so far this planet has been hard to pin down and it doesn't make any sense for it to be faster than any planet other than black.. then again.. the current arrangement of orbital durations makes absolutely no sense anyway.

Black seems to be 23h so far..

I thought they wanted these to be easy to predict?

Speculation: Planets spawn on a schedule and travel to a despawn point at a specified speed. That speed was how I was originally calculating orbital times since recording dates seemed less practical at the time. The assumption being that orbit speeds would be consistent year around.