text | @silent | Oct 21

[callada]

Hey everyone,

Have a look at the images attached to this post. These were taken of the same location in the sky at the same time of day. August 1, September 7, October 4 in that order. The fourth picture is the same as the third, other than my own addition to it to highlight some of the more obvious changes.

I haven't finished going through all of the images yet but the stars are going out. Sometimes one a week, sometimes one a night. Averages out to something like ten to twelve per month from what I can see. Maybe more, since the tablet camera doesn't pick up every star all that well, and the trees get in the way.

For now, I have enough of a star chart to navigate by, so long as those stars don't go dark. I'll let you all know if Doctor Ingram or I see a change in the rate of losses.

If anyone can control cloud layers and wants to give me a clear sky every now and then, I'd appreciate it.

((Here's a cool animated version! Thanks, Xy!))

Comments

@daylit. | text.

[sunborne]

[ it would have been a while since anyone has heard or seen of daylight after what occurred a few days prior.

and, even then, his message is surprisingly brief and subdued. ]

Is it possible to tell the missing stars' distance from each other? Are the vanishing stars' placement revealing a pattern or some sort?

[lunchbreaks]

Dearest Silent,
That is indeed concerning. Do you know how far these stars are from us?
Yours,
Aziraphale.

[callada]

Haven't seen a pattern. It looks random from here. Don't know of any way to tell how far apart these stars are - brighter might mean closer to us but might just mean brighter.

I'm no astronomer though. Any ideas on how someone could figure that out?

[callada]

This is Rosinante, by the way. I know I don't talk much on the network. I should have signed my message.

If there's a way to find out how far away the stars are, I don't know it. I can't tell if they're getting closer to us or not. To me the stars look like they blink out at random. Doesn't mean there's no pattern, just that I haven't spotted it yet.

[lunchbreaks]

Rosinante,
Ah, I should have guessed it was you. My apologies.

They're also all bright ones. Which means there could be thousands of others that have gone out that are too dim for us to see.
Yours,
Aziraphale.

[callada]

Right. That's my worry. It's more widespread than we can know.

But if we're not worried about individual stars then we can still use it to estimate a rate of extinction based on what we can see.

It's a reminder to act fast. Any one of those stars might have life on the worlds around it.

[sunborne]

You can measure the distance of a star by measuring something known as the stellar parallax. You need a consistent star we know the distance of and lots of time.

I'm not a stellar catrographer - that's Dialup, since she was my fireteam's intelligence - but I do know that it takes at least six months to do this method. Maybe more, since we might need to redo the charting if the fixed star point is loss.

[ because stars are going out. ]

[callada]

Good to know. I plan to keep taking images as frequently as I can since the stars will change position in the sky through the year. Anything I have now might be useless in a few months for getting around.

But I don't know how to find the distance to an initial star from here to measure this parallax. Dr. Ingram might know.

If any others who understand astronomy are reading this, please chime in.

[sunborne]

[ astronomers please interact. ]

Do you think it would be possible to ask Ms. Robin or Dr. Ingram if they happen to have any photos of the sky from the past few months? Or if they happen to know where we can find something like star charts?

[ his first thought is to head towards the library because, well, it's the library. ]

[callada]

Ingram doesn't have anything I haven't given him. I did ask. He's been very helpful sorting through the images I've been taking, though.

I can try Robin but you know how she is.

un: jupitersgrace

[notthatjason]

I can't fly high enough to get to the clouds...I could still see if there's a way to control them from the ground though I suppose. We could try drawing the night sky instead of taking pictures. I mean, they had to track the stars someway before electronics, right?

Can I ask...why have you been charting this anyway or what made you think to look in the first place?

[callada]

[He can fly??]

Been drawing it. Taking photos across dates and times lets me make charts easier. I go out and take the images, then sit and work on them somewhere with a table. Got two versions going since the stars move over the course of 24 hours. I'd call it day and night, but you know.

As for why, it's a navigation tool. I have a compass, but not everyone does. It's a useful backup for when the sky is clear. Then I realized there are other things you can do with it all, too. The stars' rotation confirms that this world has a 24-hr clock just like the tablets do. There's a pair of two western stars that seem to be mostly stable in the sky, which is helpful. And now all this.

@freddie1967

[sauntered_downward]

Could also be clouds blocking them from view.

[callada]

I thought that too, but clouds that small would move on after a few minutes. They seem to be consistently absent.

[sauntered_downward]

Maybe there's no wind. Lots of calm nights in this place.

[callada]

There have been clouds that moved. But also, it only takes a few hours for the stars to rotate visibly around the sky. They would have become visible once they had moved out from behind those particular clouds, even on a still night.

[sauntered_downward]

The stars can't just go out. Something just has to be blocking them from our view.

[callada]

Oh. Had nobody told you about the so-called "world eaters" yet? Sorry.

You'll be best off looking back on the network, but evidently there are creatures out to destroy all light and life. Sooner or later, they'll find us, so we need to prepare for that.

That's why some of these posts are asking for patterns. It would be nice to predict how long we think it might take for them to find us.

[sauntered_downward]

I don't read the network.

You can't just "destroy light", that would mean a creature as big as a star.

[callada]

You're missing out.

I don't know how they do it. It seems beyond belief to me as well, but so is waking up after dying and being trapped in a dark world with my soul in a lantern.

[sunborne]

[ it takes daylight a few seconds to find a fitting and nice word to describe ms. robin. he knows she means well - after all, she wants to survive this too - but, like rosinante said, she can be- ]

Cryptic.

Do you think she'll give us something if we show enough progress on our end about this? Tic for tac? Something like that? She's been around the longest so she must have noticed this some time ago, due to where she is.

[callada]

I imagine she's already reading this. Not much else to do up there.

But sure. I'll ask.

[sunborne]

Thanks. If anything happens, let me know? I'll poke around myself and see if I can turn anything up.

[ and daylight wants to end it there, wanting to be professional and serious like the others for once in his life, but- ]

Are you okay? After everything?

[callada]

I will. Thanks. I'll send the photos to you also with that app Dr. Ingram made recently. Give it an hour or so.

And yeah. I'm fine. You all right?

[sauntered_downward]

That's what they told me about disco.

Our souls aren't in these lanterns. This is just some big game. We can get out of this place if we just figure out the right way out.