Ënomai
From Almeopedia
Ënomai [ˈjɛ no maj] is Almea's sun. It is a near-solar twin, of spectral type G, and appears nearly indistinguishable from our own sun in Almea's sky.
Etymology: Caď. Ienomais, perhaps 'awesome eye', Ver. Ënomai, Ismaîn Inoma, Bar. Hemmâ; Keb. Ozur; Wede:i ru:, Cuolese rú; Ax. toreï 'great fire', X. torei, Ṭeôši torey; Old Skourene aşebort 'glower'; Tžuro ateŋ agentive of 'over'; Lé mǎs; Uyseʔ srintet 'sky-god'; Flaidish naprid 'day-fire'; Elkarîl qich.
The Solar System
The Ënomai system consists of seven known major planets (versus eight for the Sun). Counting outwards from Ënomai, they are:
- Vereon, named for the messenger of Enäron; bright white
- Išira, named for the queen of the gods; bright white
- Almea, literally 'earth and water'; blue and white
- Vlerëi, named for the goddess of love; bright blue
- Hírumor; whitish green
- Imiri, named for the messenger of Išira; whitish green
- Caiem; dull yellowish gas giant.
The first four are terrestrial planets; the outer three are gas giants. Whether Almean astronomy eventually discovers an eighth planet (analogous to the 1846 discovery of Neptune) remains to be seen. However, overall, the layout of Ënomai's solar system so far seems to be very similar to our own, albeit slightly more compact -- that is, except for Vereon, each one of the planets are slightly closer to their sun than their parallel planet in our Solar System. Hírumor's moons can be easily seen through Verdurian telescopes.
Tantalizing differences are mainly in the planets themselves. The gas giants have slightly different atmospheric components than our Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, leading to slightly different colors. Almea (radius = 5,320 km) is smaller than Earth (6,378 km) and Venus (6,050 km), and it may be surmised from their colors that Vlerëi and possibly Vereon are substantially larger than Mars and Mercury, respectively, which are reddish orange and a dull pinkish gray.
Vlerëi, with its blue color, is of course by far the most interesting. In a telescope Vlerëi can be seen to have ice caps and some tantalizing darker and lighter blotches, though it's not clear if these are continents, jungles, storms, or what. (It should be noted, however, that Mars was similarly tantalizing in 19th-century Earth astronomy... but then again, Mars isn't blue.)
Notable Stars
The brightest stars in the Almean sky (as visible in the southern hemisphere) are:
- Meme, in the constellation of Frälina, the Maiden
- Ažáritar, in Čana, the Pot -- the nearest star to Ënomai (barring of course any unknown red dwarfs)
- Šësimo, in Carďë, the Scimitar
- Iliatal, in Frälina, the Maiden
- Gelü, in Mesocrico, the Hamster
- Peleu, in Šapa, the Hat
Meme, the brightest star in Almea's night sky, is of apparent magnitude -2.5, or about as bright as Jupiter (Sirius is -1.5). In general there are more and brighter stars visible from Almea than from Earth; Ënomai seems to lie in a loose cluster.
We are not sure of any bright north polar stars (which would be analogous to Canopus in our far southern sky), however, as Verduria is nearly subtropical, the sky is known well into the north celestial hemisphere. (Sirius is a southern star in our own sky, but can still be seen as far north as Sweden.
The south polar constellation Čunima, the Shield, with its triplet of stars Similu, Simiru, and Simižu, is of course very important in navigation.
| Author: BGMan |
