Celestia Sleeps In with a Vengeance · 2:54am Sep 17th, 2013
The title is, of course, derived from the Die Hard franchise. Yippee ki-yay, motherb——ers.
Selene, in Greek mythology, is the goddess of the moon.
An armillary sphere is a model of the celestial objects, originally made with the earth at the center, and later with the sun at the center. It’s not the little dealy with planets on arms; that’s an orrery.
A sextant is used to calculate position by measuring the angle of the sun or a star (Polaris in the Northern Hemisphere) against the horizon; from that, one can calculate one’s latitude. It can also be used in reverse, of course, which would be useful in a world where celestial objects are moved about at the will of the alicorns.
A torquetum is a medieval astronomical instrument designed to take and convert measurements made in three sets of coordinates: Horizon, equatorial, and ecliptic. It’s an analog computer, basically, much like . . . .
An abacus. Luna loves her abacus.
A lunation is the average time for one lunar phase cycle (the synodic period of the moon).
IRL, there are two different calendars used. The solar, or celestial calendar, measures how long it takes the earth to complete one orbit of the sun. In Ye Olden Times, of course, lunar—or synodic calendars—were used. That’s why some religious holidays—such as Easter—don’t fall on the same day every year. The drawback to a synodic calendar is that the moon doesn’t have an even number of cycles each year.
I had intended to make a reference to this fact. However, given that the alicorns have control of the sun and the moon, they’d probably make sure that both were the same, and presumably one Equestrian month is one lunation. So that part was dropped. Still—the more you know. . . .
For those of you who read Celestia Sleeps In and also read the comments and blog entries, you may recognize Shachza. Shachza drew the first fan-art (that I know of) for this story. Inspired by a typo on my part. He also had the following comments to make about it:
“This story is disappointing me. I was expecting more adorable sleepy Celestia than I'm getting!”
“I'm still waiting for more of Celestia actually sleeping in damnit! There's been far too much of her not napping through sunrise. “
Coverart is by Shachza, used with permission.
—admiral biscuit
This story was written in the Hiawatha National Forest, which is in the upper peninsula of Michigan.
For those of you eagerly awaiting the next chapter of Celestia Sleeps In--I meant to work on it when I was up north. I had my laptop and internet-in-a-cellphone all ready to go; I had a paper copy of the next chapter in my bag. What I did not have was a cellphone signal. None. It seems that when one is in a part of Michigan where there's so little traffic that they don't bother with road signs, they also don't build cell phone towers. No internet = no gDocs, I'm sorry to report.
To give you an idea of how remote it was: I drove 200 miles without seeing a billboard or a McDonalds.
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I can't even look at my own picture without laughing loud enough to wake neighbors.
Also, what were you doing so far out in the boonies? I mean, I took a trip to the Porcupines, but you went a whole couple hours further!
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Short answer: I wanted to get away from it all. So I did.
I haven't taken a vacation in a few years (four? five? I don't remember), so I planned a road trip where I'd go wherever I wanted to. I started by re-tracing Dale's journey (except I left from Lansing, rather than Grand Rapids), visiting as many places in the story as I could. I'd have liked to take a boat out to North Fox, but the weather was bad, and the largest boat I could rent was probably not capable of making the journey. Probably next year I'll get a chance to go out there. After that, I was so close to the UP, I just kept heading north. Camped in the Hiawatha National forest, drove diagonally through the UP to Tahquamenon Falls, then Paradise, Whitefish Point, back along the Lake Superior Shoreline Rd, up to Sault Ste. Marie, and finally downstate and back home. It rained both nights, so I didn't get to see the stars, which is my one regret.
The Earth doesn't have a round number of rotations per celestial year either. It has 365.25 (I considered using a dozenal expression, but I'll admit that I'm lazy.)
Once again, I would like to apologize for not only blowing up your notifications, but this time also fanning flames in a tech debate.
sorry
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That's true, but the moon isn't that close to an even number of lunations = 1 year. If you had solely a lunar calender, you'd lose 11 days per year.
No worries. I love good discussions/debates in the comments.