The Calmarendian Sky

Cal A

Cal A is a bigger, brighter and hotter star than the sun, Sol, with which you may be familiar but, at a mean distance of 4.4 AU, Cal A – though appearing to shine with much the same brightness as Sol – is a much smaller object in the Calmarendian sky than Sol is in Earth’s. Varying from a minimum apparent diameter of 665 arc seconds to a maximum of 987 arc seconds, this compares with Sol-from-Earth figures of 1,887 to 1,952 and means that Cal A generally appears to be less than half Sol’s apparent diameter.

Cal B

Though living in a binary star system, Calmarendians do not look up into a sky with two blazing suns. Both Calmarendi and the Cal A’s red dwarf companion, Cal B, orbit the main star, with the latter’s orbit being way outside that of Calmarendi. Observers on the planet’s surface view Cal B much as observers on Earth might view Saturn – as a star slowly traversing the static background of the constellations – only much, much brighter and noticeably more red in colour. And it is bright: visible in the daytime sky and able to cast discernible shadows by night, though it is not nearly bright enough to “read a newspaper” by.

Satellites of Calmarendi

No data are available at the present time.

The Six Other Planets Orbiting Cal A

All except the most distant (the two Neptunian planets) are easily visible to the naked eye. No further data are available at this time.

Titánia

Titania, to the casual observer, is similar in appearance to Cal B, a bright, reddish star and it, too, is visible in the daytime sky and also casts shadows by night but not as noticeably. Unlike Cal B, however, it retains its static position amidst the constellations of the star field.

Other Stars in the Night Sky

The Cal star system is situated in a crowded inner arm of the City of Stars, an area of rapid star formation with many young, large stars in the neighbourhood. Consequently, the night sky on Calmarendi is awash with rich star fields and there are many, many bright stars forming intricate constellations.

Messier 82

M82, the “Cigar Galaxy”, one of the two companion galaxies to Calmarendi’s host galaxy, M81, is, due to its proximity and brightness, visible to the naked eye in the Calmarendian night sky.

Exactly what a casual observer might see or what a typical Calmarendian might make of it is currently undefined, not least because the gravitational interactions between M81 and M82 mean that, on a cosmological scale, the appearance of M82 is likely to change quite rapidly. A lot would depend on whether Jennifer is there while M82 is as it is seen from Earth at present (that is, as it was twelve million years ago in Earth’s past), “now”, in which case M82 will appear locally as it will appear on Earth in twelve million years time, or whether she was there sometime deeper into Earth’s past or future.

One thing we do know is that it has absolutely no resemblance, from a Calmarendian perspective, to a cigar, likely being a full on, in-your-face, spiral galaxy. It only looks cigar-shaped from Earth because observers there see it almost fully edge on.

The Milky Way

Being a comparable galaxy to M81 and not so very far away, the Milky Way galaxy (“NGC 0”) is a relatively easy target for Calmarendian astronomers. It is not quite visible to the naked eye but, through a telescope, appears much as you would expect: a grand design, barred spiral galaxy.

Whether Jennifer ever gets to see the Milky Way or recognize it for what it is, we do not yet know. Because it is impossible to say whether the events of Jennifer’s life on Earth are contemporaneous with her experiences on Calmarendi (and, indeed, what it even means for events in locations separated by millions of light years to be contemporaneous) it is entirely possible that she could be observing the Milky Way as it existed millions of years in her past or, just as easily, as it (might) exist in the future. She might even be there sufficiently far in the future to be able to witness the collision between the Milky Way and Andromeda but from the safety of the cheap seats.

Is the Sky Bluer on Calmarendi than on Earth?

Not so as you’d notice. Not only that, but sunsets on Calmarendi can be every bit as red as they can be on Earth.