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Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton  Supposing the world was a very large moon orbiting around a super giant planet? The tilt would be in relation to the planet rather than the sun, wouldn't it? What would the seasons be like then? I'm imagining not at all the same as our seasons relative to the year. The part where the world orbits around to the side opposite the sun would be a long, cold eclipse, wouldn't it? (Although whether this could result in a situation like the one Culhwch is describing is beyond my powers to visualize.)
And why do it for a fantasy novel? Because it could have a significant impact on the plot -- it could be the thing that generates the plot. Seasons are a very big deal in a pre-industrial world. Seasons can be life and death. Not to mention the part that seasonal or planetary cycles can play in religion. I can imagine people killing each other over calendar issues; I can imagine it far too easily. |
In fact, the main fantasy setting I write in all takes place on a moon orbiting a gas giant. On this world, they count the passing of a month by the amount of time taken for the moon to orbit its parent planet. And I thought about the eclipse part quite a bit, having a GCSE in astronomy (*brag*) I can say that an eclipse would only occur when the planet is 'full' and rests on the ecliptic. But the fact that the planet is a hell of a lot bigger than the sun from the observer's view means that eclipses are more likely, and maybe even occur every month like clockwork. On the other hand, the fact that the moon orbits around quite a distance from the planet would mean that the ecliptic wouldn't be a simple straight line, but would look more like a planet's trail, going through retrograde motion every so often, which may lower the chance of an eclipse occurring every month. Also, if the moon was orbiting far enough away from the planet and not around it's equator, then it may only briefly pass through the penumbra giving them a week or so of rather chilly and dark weather rather than slogging through the umbra and freezing the moon.
The way I've got around this is by giving the moon are rather oddly placed orbit; rather than orbiting close to the planet's equator or the star's orbital plane, its orbit is on its way towards a polar one. This evades the problem of the planet causing a chilly eclipse for half a month, every month and and in combination with a ring system also provides a spectacular meteor shower twice monthly
Oh, and to put those funky pictures in a bit of perspective: see how big the sun is compared with us? Well, the distance between the edge of the sun and us can hold 100 suns chromosphere-to-chromosphere. Huge, innit?