Astronomy in The Sunlit Man

[TheWisestBear]

There was quite a bit of fun astronomy in this book.  If you like thinking about that sort of thing, I finally finished my analysis of the astronomy in The Sunlit Man in this video here:

https://youtu.be/e4-XQgj75vw

Let me know what you think!

[alder24]

Few things:

1. It's the core of Canticle that's super dense, not the entire planet. A rock picked up from the surface of Canticle would be of normal density. But, yeah, I know, it's the average value.
2. The rings aren't Saturn-like because Saturn's rings are made out of ice, ice which would melt, vaporize and be blown off by solar winds in the Goldilocks zone of this star. Those rings are rocky rings unless more magic is involved. 
3. It's not the sun that's hot, the sun isn't hot enough to melt the surface. It's the transfer of investiture from the sun into the planet's core that melts the surface. The surface acts as an incandescent light bulb, resisting the transfer thus releasing heat and melting. But if you're not between the sun and the planet, then the sun is just "regular hot." TSM ch 30:

   Quote

   Sunlight bathed him as the ship left the shadow of the planet. Calm, warm, ordinary sunlight.

   ch 39:

   Quote

   I felt something from that light, Auxiliary said. Something very unusual. Did you sense the force of it? Light shouldn’t push like that, Nomad.
   “It was being pulled into the ground,” Nomad whispered. “Like an electric current. Like lightning, forming a current between cloud and ground—only this time, between sunlight and the core of the planet.”
   Storms. That was it. That’s why he could stand on the deck up high and not be aflame. Because he hadn’t been between the sun and the planet. That was why sunhearts were charged so much as they were made. That was why the ground melted.
   Everything between the sun and the core it acted like the filament of an incandescent light bulb. Superheated by the transfer of energy.

And that's it. Nice explanation of how to get your longitude and latitude.

[TheWisestBear]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

It's not the sun that's hot, the sun isn't hot enough to melt the surface. It's the transfer of investiture from the sun into the planet's core that melts the surface. The surface acts as an incandescent light bulb, resisting the transfer thus releasing heat and melting. But if you're not between the sun and the planet, then the sun is just "regular hot." TSM ch 30: ch 39:

That particular detail felt a little spoilerish so I didn't go into that level of precision for this spoiler-free video.  But you're right. 

Thanks for your feedback on the rest!