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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aexalon" data-source="post: 3582538" data-attributes="member: 16283">Be sure to check out <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helliconia" target="_blank">Helliconia</a>. Also an example of a planet orbiting the dimmer of a pair of stars. In this case, the planet Helliconia orbits Batalix in 480 earth days, while Batalix orbits her bighter sister Freyr in 2500 earth years. The novels deal with how humanity (and the other alien species present, the Phagors) manages to cope with the vast seasonal changes Helliconia is subjected to, and how it changes civilisation.The planning committee is currently considering putting the obliquity of Garden's orbital plane at 30 degrees relative to the planet's orbital plane. This should be sufficient to prevent eclipses outside the equinoxes. Depending on the choice of a year of 60 sidereal or 60 synodical days, and on the choice of Garden's position relative to the planet and the suns on the day of spring equinox, this means 2, 1, or no eclipses per year. Most likely two will be chosen. No decision on the orbital period of the 2 K-class stars has been made, nor on the A-class distant third, except that that one will likely be called "Vecanoi" (cookie for who gets the reference without Googling).Some form of annular system has been contemplated by the planning committee. Continuing the utilisation of the Jupiter faximile, note that its ring system only extends to 226.000km. With Garden 531.000km out, its common atmosphere alone should be more than adequate in defending against the typical ring particles that still roam this far out. Also, moons tend to clear paths in ring systems, and not just by directly sweeping their orbit clear; through gravitational interaction, a moon effectively pushes ring particles away from it. As for other debris drawn in by the gas giant: Garden has only been around in this system for ten thousand years. The odds of getting hit by anything noticeable in this astronomically infinitesimal timeframe are negligeable.Back on topic: additional circadian cycles.<img src="http://www.enworld.org/gallery/files/1/6/2/8/3/GardenIlluminationGraphA-D.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> <img src="http://www.enworld.org/gallery/files/1/6/2/8/3/GardenIlluminationGraphE-H.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">40/20, midday activity. Advantages: Simple. Disadvantages: Monolithical (very long activity cycle). Applicability: Diurnal creatures.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">40/20, midday rest. Advantages: Simple. Disadvantages: Monolothical (very long activity cycle). Applicability: Nocturnal creatures.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">20/10/20/10, midday rest. Advantages: Evasion of midday heat / midnight cold Disadvantages: Significant waste of light. Applicability: Crepuscular creatures that for whatever reason don't like planetlight.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">20/10/20/10, midday activity. Advantages: Decent use of light. Disadvantages: Elimination of sunsrise / sunsset as significant events in active part of cycle. Applicability: Bipolar society swapping from sunslight to planetlight mode every 30 hours.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">30/10/10/10, full day activity. Advantages: High use of available light. Disadvantages: Dual cycle, moderately complex. Applicability: Creatures wanting to make maximal use of the available light; First step towards Medieval "segmented sleep".</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">3x12/8, midday rest. Advantages: High use of available light, evasion of midday heat. Disadvantages: Moderately complex. Applicability: Creatures wanting to make maximal use of the available light, but evade a very long day and the heat of midday; Fully realised Medieval "segmented sleep".</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">4x10/5, midday activity. Mock suggestion, fairly pointless.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">5x8/4, midday rest. Mock suggestion, fairly pointless.</li> </ul>Thoughts?</blockquote>

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