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?

[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?

[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.

[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?

[sunborne]

Thanks. Fingers and stars crossed that we get something out of this.

[ a few seconds pass before he sends his next message: ]

Feeling awful. It's like something crawled out of my helm and then went back in and then decided, 'Nope! I want out!' and left noisily as possible.

Does that make sense? I feel like it does after what happened.

[callada]

Yeah. Yeah, it does. Rest up, all right? Let me know if you need anything.

[sunborne]

You too. I think everyone deserves a rest up and then some after all of this happened.

Take care now. I'll hit you up privately if anything comes up.