NB Astronomy: Number Crunching

Just for those who may be interested.

Note: People who are better at math may have a better way of doing this.

Converting Dates to Numbers

Feb 11, 505 PC

(y * 336) + (m * 28) + d - 1

There are 336 days in the NB year and 28 days in the month. The - 1 is an adjustment to account for the lack of a Jan 0, 0 PC on the NB calendar.

(505 * 336) + (2 * 28) + d - 1 = 169,680 + 56 + 10 = 169,746

169,746 days since midnight, Jan 1, 0 PC

Now the main significance of the 1/1/00 date for us is that this is not just the presumed date of the cataclysm.. (give or take).. but it is also the date of the last astronomical alignment. As such we can use this date to calculate where each planet will be at any given time.

So let's take the Black planet.. with an orbital duration of 23 days.. Where is it on Feb 11, 505?

169,746 / 23 = 7,380.26..... hmmm ok what does that tell us?

Since alignment.. Black has completed 7,380 orbits around New Britannia.. it has completed 70% of it's current orbit. If we say the orbit begins at its zenith at midnight.. then 1-25% is setting in the west.. 26-75% is below the horizon.. 76-99% is rising in the east..

So.. Black at this time is just below the western horizon. How about that?

Calculating the next complete orbit

But when will it complete it's next orbit? (1 - .26) * 23 + 11 = (.74 * 23) + 11 = 17 + 11 = 28

1 - .26 is finding the % of the orbit left to complete. 11 is of course the date we're working from.. Feb 11..
23 is of course the orbital time (in NB days) of the Black planet.

Feb 28, 505. Shall we test that?

(505 * 336) + (2 * 28) + 28 - 1 = 169,763

169,763 / 23 = 7,381 dead on!

Just for fun.. let's check this against the other planets..

White, 169,763 / 29 = 5,853.89.. nope
Blue 169,763 / 19 = 8,934.89 nope but looks like Blue and White will align above the horizon..
Yellow 169,763 / 17 = 9,986.05 Oooo close but not quite.
Red 169,763 / 13 = 13,058,69 nope..
Green 169,763 / 11 = 15,433 yes... Black and Green alignment on the 28th..
Orange 169,763 / 3 = 56,586.67 nope
Purple 169,763 / 2 - Odd days only.. so no..

So seems we have a 2 planet alignment midnight on Feb 28th. 505.. be sure to watch out for it.

And there you have it.

 

You can call: (y * 336) + (m * 28) + d - 1 the day number or something like that

For each planet figure out the day number for one day it has zenith. That's a good start

 

hrm.. well somewhere in that mess of numbers I borked something cause it's Feb 21 and Black is setting. lol

Ah ok.. lol it was the month.. I was running numbers a month ahead.. If Feb is 2 for example then it should be m - 1.. duh.. cause it's 1 full month then days into Feb.. So revised equation..

(y * 336) + 28(m - 1) + d - 1

(1 - .26) * 23 + 11 should still be right.. so.. let's try this again.. but with the current in-game date since the numbers are going to be different now anyway.

Feb 22, 506 PC

(506 * 336) + 28(1) + 21 - 1 = 170,016 + 48 = 170,064

170,064 / 23 = 7,394.09... MUCH better.. (I'm looking at the 9% remainder and where Black is in the sky right now).

(1 - .09) * 23 + 22 = 21 day after Feb 22.. or Mar 13

So Black was at zenith about 2 hours ago.. it'll be another 21 hours to complete it's orbit.. ok.. I was wracking my brain there for a moment.. had to be something stupid.