At the risk of upsetting H and having him probably throw eggs at my house, I wanted to share a little tidbit from the opening chapters of the Game Of Thrones book I recently purchased. Yes, I know, I am on the cutting edge of the latest craze in fiction.....so sue me....
In the story, there is a scene where twilight was approaching and the observation of the "crescent moon" was made in the sky. A bit later, when it was fully dark, the main character continued his actions (and I paraphrase here) "when the crescent moon had fully risen"........
Now, firstly, IF it was getting dark AND the crescent moon was around, then this must have meant that the sun had just set and the moon was "trailing" the sun, as it does when crescent lit and therefore would have been in the sky BEFORE it was truly dark. Of course, this then means that the crescent moon was "waxing" to full and would NOT be rising from the horizon in a crescent phase at all as this would mean it was "waning" to new moon and would have PRECEDED the Sun and therefore risen over the horizon PRIOR to sunrise and not be rising just after sunset!!!
Now of course, before you all yell at me that this is a fictional world and everything therefore revolves around the wrong way or upside-counterclockwise in the "North" or whatever, I felt this was an oversight that boggled my mind and made me think....wait a minute?!?
"The Moon" was mentioned. That's all. Therefore, it must be assumed that it is "OUR Moon" as we know it and therefore, the mechanics of its phases and orbital behaviour MUST be consistent.
H and I share enthusiasm for many of HBO's productions.... but Game of Thrones does nothing for me. Zip, Nadda, Niente.
I Love it Simon, can't wait for the next season to start in April.....hence why I bought the book as I had to wait all day for my wife on the weekend while she attended a course in Sutherland, so I bought something to read. Pity you don't like it, but hey, I used to play dungeons and dragons (yes, I am a nerd of biblical proportions), so it tickles my nerd bone a lot.....wait, that doesn't sound right......:S
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Originally Posted by Astro_Bot
Game of Thrones? Meh. It's just swords, t*ts and costumes - I can get that pretty much anywhere.
Yes, but it's 100 times better than all the other supposed "entertainment" going around where we follow "real" housewives who live off their husband's wealth, are more plastic than a coke bottle and ***** and moan about how they have too many Jimmy Choo handbags and how Stella is SUCH a ***** now whe has had her boobs done and is doing the gardener......please......!
It's Testosterone TV, some escapism mixed with humour and great writing, PLUS some complex plot twist and plenty of gratuitous T & A and violence, like someone having a longsword shoved through their collarbone into their torso, just because they were a tosser or something......it's great!
I don't have pay TV so would have to rent the DVDs, and I barely rent movies these days, let alone TV series.
But, point taken, GoT has its followers who are certainly passionate, so there must be something good about it.
Yeah, it bothers me something terrible to find there is ONE good show about gold mining in Alaska and then NEXT thing, there is 5 bleeding series offshoots ALL on the same channel all trying to "out drama" each other........
"Dave is trying to drive his 450 excavator up a 1 in 100 slope and manages to tear off his track on the dozer....threatening to DESTROY his gold mining season if he can't fix it in time as he has to drive 42000 miles to the nearest town to get spare parts"
Seriously, I literally watched 15 mins of Gold Rush the other night where the excitement period of the show was when they bought 5 trail bikes to scout for better land and spent a day and a half sourcing the bikes and then riding them BACK to their claim and one of them fell off in a puddle!!!!! I could feel my brain cells decaying as I watched this Pseudo Drama unfold before me......
And don't get me started on Storage Wars, Storage Wars Canada, Storage Wars Texas, Storage Wars New York, Storage Friggin Wars Albequerque etc etc etc etc ad nauseum.......seriously, it makes me think of the Simpsons episode where the TV "execs" are sitting around a table discussing what "NEW" shows they can come up with and the Lady says "everyone take out your TVs and surf the channels for ideas"
It is soooo sad, it is pathetic. Hence why an original, well produced and visual feast like GoT is such good value entertainment. Gratuitous nudity, violence and all.....you should look for an episode to watch to try it out, see what you think.
Now, firstly, IF it was getting dark AND the crescent moon was around, then this must have meant that the sun had just set and the moon was "trailing" the sun, as it does when crescent lit and therefore would have been in the sky BEFORE it was truly dark. Of course, this then means that the crescent moon was "waxing" to full and would NOT be rising...
Just to twist your tail Chris (I think you're right and Martin is no astronomer btw): I spent an evening while working in Iceland up in Akureyri watching the fat waning crescent moon above the horizon just after sunset. It continued to rise as the evening progressed you know nothing Jon Snow
The reason? I was at 66°N, it was August, and the waning Moon was unusually far north in Gemini and didn't actually set, but swung low over the north horizon around dusk, before rising higher into a dark late evening sky, and being up in the east-northeast towards dawn. Very weird seeing the Moon in that position though my friend who was with me didn't seem to care much at the time!! If the scene you described was up beyond the Wall, maybe it was far enough north to be actually possible...
Mind you, trying to work out astronomy in fantasy books where the seasons/winters are irregularly spaced and bear no relation to years is probably a fruitless task! Game of Thrones is great
Set your favourite planetarium program to 65.68deg N, 18.1deg W, 22nd August 2003, sunset (yes Mars was bright that night but very low!), and have a look at the Moon...
Some sloppy astronomy pops up everywhere. I enjoy playing boardgames, and was surprised at this one in a new game called SOS Titanic. You flip pages of a book as the ship founders, and ho ho ho, on the second to last page, a glorious full moon slowly sinks into the sea, at 2:20AM, April 15, 1912. In fact, there was a new moon that night, or close enough to it!
I've just started watching G of T on DVD after having read the first book and almost finished the second book. Not to put a spoiler on anyone who is contemplating reading them but in the second book a comet plays a big part of the story. Trouble is it seems to be visible day and night and in almost any direction. I've chosen to ignore this physical impossibility and just enjoy the story.
I am rather enjoying both the books and the DVDs, mainly because it's full of action and you never know who is going to get knocked off next, however you want to translate that
I'm with you Chris, there's precious little well made entertainment such as GoT...
...all the reality stuff just pampers to the lowest denominator and does nothing to fire peoples' imaginations or get them thinking. TV should be about more than just laughing at someone elses misfortune.
(Although Vince killed off the wrong central characters...)
With GoT if you either love or hate a character you only have to wait a short while to be fairly sure they'll be killed off. The only place in the universe less safe to live would be Midsummer.
Last edited by mithrandir; 04-02-2014 at 05:58 PM.
With GoT if you either love or hate a character you only have to wait a short while to be fairly sure they'll be killed off. The only place in the universe less safe to live would be Midsummer.
One of the few to survive to the bitter end of Breaking Bad was the man diagnosed with a terminal illness at the beginning of episode one!
Alas, several of the most compelling characters were lost along the way, while a couple of utterly forgettable types simply refused to die.
Yet still easily one of television's highest achievements.
I've just started watching G of T on DVD after having read the first book and almost finished the second book. Not to put a spoiler on anyone who is contemplating reading them but in the second book a comet plays a big part of the story. Trouble is it seems to be visible day and night and in almost any direction. I've chosen to ignore this physical impossibility and just enjoy the story.
I am rather enjoying both the books and the DVDs, mainly because it's full of action and you never know who is going to get knocked off next, however you want to translate that
I watch almost no TV but have watched and read all of GoT.
I put the comet in the same category as the dragons. It clearly isn't a comet as we know them but maybe a high flying dragon.
you know nothing Jon Snow 
