JDG wrote: > >> Not Thalia - this would be a _Fall_ constellation. > > Ah yes, I was thinking of Earth where a Fall constellation would also be a > winter constellation. > Again, no. There are Winter, Summer, Fall and Spring constellations - the difference is that a typical Winter constellation might be seen in other seasons [depending on the latitude of the observer and the declination of the constellation]. And, rigorously, the constellations distribute all over the sky, so that between a Winter and a Fall constellation there may be a constellation that is visible in the second half of Fall and in the first half of Winter, etc.
>Is it possible, however, that due to the eccentric orbit, a constellation >would be visible in the Fall and invisible for most of summer and winter? > It does not depend on the eccentricity of the orbit, because Winter/Spring/ Summer/Fall for Stratos are defined by the true anomaly, so that the sky is divided in four geometrically equal parts - that's the reason why Winter takes half the year [Kepler's 2nd law: the area covered by the orbit is proportional to time] I've attached a small gif to illustrate what I mean [using a 0.5 eccentricity for the orbit]. Sorry for those that get brin-l by digest mode... Ah, the answer is *yes* - but it would have to be a constellation in the opposite hemisphere, for example [in this case, where the Prison is located at about 40 deg North] a southern constellation. Thalia, however, is a northern constellation [declination ~ 40 deg]. and it would be visible *all* the year, but not *all* the nights. Alberto Monteiro
stratosorbit.gif
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