APOD: Where Your Shadow Has Company (2016 Feb 20)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
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Ann
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Re: APOD: Where Your Shadow Has Company (2016 Feb 20)

Post by Ann » Sun Feb 21, 2016 10:08 am

geckzilla wrote:Yeah, and that's at maximum possible separation. Say if the planet somehow rotated in such a way that matched their orbital period and the only piece of land for a person to stand on made it so only one star was visible during sunset and sunrise, that person would eventually figure out there are two stars by looking at their shadow at noon, even though the fact would be obscured from direct observation by the glare.
Fascinating! Imagine figuring out that you are orbiting double suns by spotting double shadows at noon.

I should have made a new post for my Alpha Centauri inquiry. Do you have the time and the energy to figure out what kind of shadows a person would see on a planet orbiting at 1 A.U. of either component of Alpha Centauri? See my previous post for more details about Alpha Centauri.

Ann
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geckzilla
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Re: APOD: Where Your Shadow Has Company (2016 Feb 20)

Post by geckzilla » Sun Feb 21, 2016 12:32 pm

I'll try to get it tomorrow night.
Just call me "geck" because "zilla" is like a last name.

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neufer
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Re: APOD: Where Your Shadow Has Company (2016 Feb 20)

Post by neufer » Sun Feb 21, 2016 9:59 pm

geckzilla wrote:
The dwarf's shadow is negligible and barely noticeable.
Art Neuendorffer

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