The Solar System: September, AD 15605

[töff]

That's what my half-an-idea spectral orbit color was heading to, I think.

I can run a "to scale" color strip in the legend!

[töff]

I'm not sure what you mean about the moons as a shade of blue ...?

I was thinking about moons yesterday and I dunno what I will do with them. I don't want a string of moons off to the side of each planet ... that would be kinda ugly and what would I do with the 4 planets that have ring systems? (5 if you count Pluto cuz I added one there, a micro-asteroid-belt kinda thing). But if I show moons as orbits, that's a durn lotta extra circles all over the map. Doesn't Jupiter have like 60+ moons? I can't include that many anyway. Maybe I'll end up with a string. Shoot. I dunno.

Today I hope to learn the positions of the planets for the date in question. I have a copy of the awesome Starry Night astronomy software and I think I rigged it for AD 15605 once before. Wish me luck :p

Oh, new idea. I could write this map in the story as animated ink. Then the heroine could just set the date for what she wants, and all the planets move to the proper positions. She might even gripe about it not being to scale. Hmm, just a thought. The printed map, obviously, will be a still image. I'm not gonna do this as an interactive Flash video with a built-in astronomy database. Sorry, I ain't got the time and I ain't nowhere near good enough with Flash. It would be cool, though, huh.

[töff]

That means the date will be like a scroll-wheel odometer. Hah!

[RPMiller]

Jupiter had 63 moons a few years ago, but I heard rumors that they discovered a bunch more.

[RPMiller]

Check out this page:
http://astro.nineplanets.org/astrosoftware.html

It has links to all sorts of software for all different platforms.

[töff]

One aspect of this project that cannot (should not) be disregarded is this: the era is the 16th Millennium, and humanity has achieved levels of technology that easy allow the addition or elimination of small moons. That fact opens up a wide range of possibilities that could easily be 'abused'; e.g., I might succumb to the temptation to say that all the little Jovian moons were 'cleaned up' at some point in the storyworld's past, thus relieving the mapmaker (c'est moi) of the burden of detailing tons of little shepherds and microsatellites. Will I cheat so? I hope not. But, what can I do with 63 flippin' moons at Jupiter alone? Yeeks.

I also need to go through some of my canon material in search of permanent artificial satellites. I know I've mentioned some.

Now I'm wondering how to map the kingdoms of the Belt. Traditional borders don't apply because the component landmasses are all moving relative to each other. I might have to color-code them, too, or maybe stick little heraldry icons on them.

My god, this project is getting complicated fast.

[töff]

Very cool software link, thanks! I just tried one and it tells me Jupiter and Saturn are both in Pisces in Sep 15605. I'll try another, maybe, and Starry Night later too.