From: Alex Ferguson (alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk)
Date: Fri 04 Nov 1994 - 01:03:44 EET
Harald Smith (some time ago):
> If you look at the map in Codex #2 showing the location of the Middle Air,
> which the Red Goddess is supposed to be contesting, then I think it makes
> a very difficult argument to say it can't be seen from elsewhere outside
> the Glowline.
Ah, but this is a _mythic_ map, not a topographical one. (For example, the implied proportions of the spike make little sense, if anyone were to live on its "slopes" (read: precipices), never mind making it agree with the maps in Uz Lore.
However, I do agree the moon is certainly visible outside the glowline, and think it's past time, in fact, that we had at least a vague working guess at its real or apparent height.
And on the subject of mine: these _don't_ include any possible "horizon effect". (Yeah, MOB, Glorantha doesn't have a horizon, we know. <g>) If the horizon works _exactly_ like the terran one [1], then on my previously suggested numbers, the moon elevations need to be modified: in particular, they'd be _below_ the horizon throughout Pamaltela and the central and southern oceans. From these assumptions (moon 1000km up, 15km radius, and an effective-horizon curvature of 6371km), some Gofer hacking, and some difficulty in remembering that it was the cosine rule I should be using for the oblique angle of a triangle, I got that visibility of the moon would extend to 3300 km or so; in order to be visible 8000km away, in Jolar, it'd need to be over 14000km up. Hrm. Modified tabulations of elevation and visual size based on these or other sets of figures available on request.
[1] And does it? I dunno. It would if Glorantha is a sphere, or upward-curved lozenge, of radius 6000km or so. Or if the Bent Light Rays (a weird Lunar idea if ever I heard one) act to reproduce such an effect, even over long distances.
Alex.
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