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Found 9 results

  1. Those of us who occasionally leave our mines and look toward the sky have noticed that the regular eclipses of Sol by Jackal no longer occur. In fact the motions of the moons are significantly different since the release of the new client. The backdrop of stars has shifted too. Before I invest *alot* of time in screen shots, vector algebra and spherical trigonometry it would be good to know if these changes were deliberate or if they just happened inadvertently. The latter is a very real possibility since a change in direction of star motion was one of the last fixes put in before the client release. The star motions weren't automatically right in the new client so it is reasonable to think that active attention would have been required for the moons as well. And the nature of their current motions opposite that of Sol and the stars inclines me to think they could use a correction too. Could someone on staff please drop a reply indicating whether or not the new motions of the moons are the intended ones?
  2. The next grand conjunction promises to be the best ever with the moons clustering very tightly in the Western sky before sunrise. It is 00:00:00 on day of the Wurm in week 1 of the starfall of Silence in the year of 1066. 00:52 Seris rises in the WNW 01:01 Valrei rises in the NW 01:47 Jackal rises in the WNW 04:50 Sol rises in the NW 09:35 The conjunction of Jackal and Valrei attains minimum separation of 7.8 degrees 13:21 The conjunction of Jackal and Seris attains minimum separation of 1.4 degrees 16:00 The conjunction of Jackal and Sol ends 16:17 Valrei sets in the SW 16:56 Seris sets in the SW 17:11 Jackal sets in the WSW 19:11 Sol sets in the SW
  3. My investigation of the original orbit of Haven has gone as far as it can with the screen shots in my possession. You can read about it here.
  4. Those interested in the Wurmian sky should make a note of an upcoming conjunction of all three of Wurm's large moons. Best viewing will be at about 20:00 on Wrath day, week 3 of the Raven; moons will be nicely grouped in the Eastern sky shortly after sunset at that time. But any time within a few (Wurm) days before and after best viewing the sky should still look interesting. This will occur more or less in the middle of Apple season so if you are out and about harvesting apples, get out from under the trees somewhere with a view of the Eastern horizon. According to my forecasting It is 20:00:00 on Wrath day in week 3 of the Raven's starfall in the year of 1063. Jackal: alt=+17.7, azm=-92.3 Seris: alt=+32.2, azm=-74.0 Valrei: alt=+11.0, azm=-85.9 This event is probably as good as they ever get. Assuming of course that the new client retains the current moon positions if it is released in the interim. Last time I looked the test client showed the moons in different places than the production client. FYI the corresponding terrestrial time is approximately 2017-01-23T08:07:13.750-0600. So early afternoon for western Europe and morning for central USA.
  5. Those among us who care about things celestial will be treated to a grand conjunction of Wurm's three largest moons in the near future. For quite a while now I have been studying the motions of the moons to discover the principles of their motions. I now have sufficiently accurate estimates of the orbital planes to be able to predict their positions with reasonable accuracy. So I am pleased to be able to alert sky gazers of an interesting conjunction of the moons in the hours surrounding day of the Wurm in week 3 of the starfall of Dancers in the year 1061, which is coming up in less than one Terrestrial week! I put together a graphic showing more or less what to expect here on Google Drawings (sharing now enabled). In Wurm just like in real life all of the really interesting astronomical events happen when the weather is overcast. So I am making an additional prediction of rain or fog at the same time :-/
  6. This is the first part of a series of articles on the "physics and astronomy" of the universe of Wurm Online, trying to describe the structure, dynamics and "laws of nature" of our in-game world . The information compiled here has been carefully researched and discussed by a small group of players who call themselves "The Wurm Astronomical Society" (Docterchese, McGarnicle, Valdor, WojorowskiPL and Yaga). Part 1 summarizes all we know about the basic dimensions of the Wurm universe: tiles, distances, slopes and heights. Part 2 is here: http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/143679-the-wurm-universe-part-2-time-date-and-calendar/ The most basic unit of measurement is defined by the size of a tile. Tiles are the equally sized squares that the landscape of Wurm Online is entirely composed of. In the 3D world of Wurm a tile can be either flat or inclined, so that one or more of its corners can be higher or lower than the others. In all our calculations we used the following fundamental information, given in the Wurmpedia (http://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Tile) : How can we measure distances and heights in Wurm? Originally we tried to use a spyglass, because it displays the distance between the observer and an object pointed to by the crosshairs: Using a spyglass is sufficient to verify the basic unit of measurement (1 tile = 4m x 4m) and to measure linear distances within a reasonable accuracy. However, when it comes to measuring heights it turned out that a spyglass is not quite accurate enough to yield reliable results. Thus we need to use a more precise method: triangulation! This method uses basic trigonometric functions to determine the height of an object. To determine the height H of an object, you define a reference point, take a screenshot (as shown in the example) and measure the angle α between the ground and the top of the object, as seen from the reference point. (As we have no means to measure angles in-game, we need to use a graphics program to determine the angle on the screenshot.) Additionally you need to measure the horizontal distance, which you obtain by counting the number of tiles T (remember: one tile corresponds to a distance of 4 meters). You then get the height H by using this formula: Here is an example: For a distance of 40 tiles (T=160m) we measure an angle of 14°. Thus, our avatar of Magranon would have a height of: H = 160m x tan(14°) = 40m (Please note that the result has to be rounded, due to the immanent inaccuracy of this method.) Here is a list of heights for some arbitrary objects, just to give some examples (sorry, this forum doesn't provide tables): Player character: 1.7m House wall (1 floor): 3.0m (note: the ground floor of a house has a height of 3.3m) Pillar: 5.6m Freedom tower (incl. flag): 25m Colossus: 34m Deity avatar 40m Finally, talking about measuring heights, we must look at another basic unit of measurement used in the Wurm universe: dirts. Whenever we see sloped tiles defining the 3D landscape the elevation of slopes is given in terms of the amount of "dirts dropped". When terraforming the land you use a shovel to dig or drop dirt - you add or subtract one "unit of dirt" with each action of the shovel. Using the method of triangulation described above we can find out how these "units of dirt" correspond to metric units. By dropping dirt we make elevated platforms of various heights, thus creating different slopes. We then position an observer in a pit, so that the eye level is slightly above the ground, and take screenshots: .. Measuring the angles and using the formula given above, we can triangulate the elevation of the platform: .. We obtain the following table (for slopes spanning a single tile): Slope .. Angle .. Elevation (m) ---------------------------------------- 10 ...... 14.0 .... 1.0 20 ...... 26.6 .... 2.0 30 ...... 36.9 .... 3.0 40 ...... 45.0 .... 4.0 50 ...... 51.3 .... 5.0 60 ...... 56.3 .... 6.0 70 ...... 60.3 .... 7.0 80 ...... 63.4 .... 8.0 90 ...... 66.0 .... 9.0 100 ..... 68.2 ... 10.0 150 ..... 75.1 ... 15.0 200 ..... 78.7 ... 20.0 Thus, there is a simple relation between "dirts" and metric units: Using this method it is also possible to determine the height of a player character with sufficient accuracy: We plan to continue this series with the following chapters: "Part 2: Time, Date and Calendar" "Part 3: The planet Wurm (Basic Physics)" "Part 4: Sky and Stars (Basic Astronomy)" "Part 5: Sol and the Moons (Celestial Mechanics of the Solar System)" .... etc...... The articles can also be found in Wurmpedia.
  7. The College of Astonomical Science at the University of Wurm at Release is pleased to be able to share the results of its investigation of the orbital motions of Seris and Valrei. The most exciting result is the ability to predict transits of Seris across the face if Valrei. https://sites.google.com/site/universityofwurmatrelease/wurm-astronomy/wurm-s-polar-moons
  8. Sadly, Wurm lacks a Pole Star. Wurm astronomy buffs can find the west celestial pole in the night sky using the instructions at the U of W at R astronomy site here.
  9. Astronomers of the University of Wurm at Release have published their findings pertaining to the periods of the moons of Wurm. Full results can be found here, but in summary the periods are: Name Period (Wurm Days) Valrei 50 Seris 28 Jackal 80 I would like to hear about any other observations any of you have made.