how far away is the SL sun

[Ceka Cianci]

49 minutes ago, Marth Coberts said:

I've got it!

 

The Sun in SL is not a sun, but instead just a giant lightbulb, controlled by the Lindens themselves.

And we're just all really tiny in comparison to them.

They must really be irritated by me then.. As much as I just get bored and scroll through every preset in my photo tools..

*Finally she is at the last one,my arms are so tired.... OMG, She's starting over!! \o/*

Edited July 24, 2018 by Ceka Cianci

[Coby Foden]

Second Life sun is made of a special shape changing prim.

At noon it's perfectly round. When it starts going lower in the sky the shape changes. Once in the afternoon it's again round, although a bit bigger than at noon. After that the shape changes again when the sun goes even lower.

Edited July 24, 2018 by Coby Foden

[ellestones]

21 minutes ago, Coby Foden said:

Second Life sun is made of a special shape changing prim.

At noon it's perfectly round. When it starts going lower in the sky the shape changes. Once in the afternoon it's again round, although a bit bigger that at noon. After that the shape changes again when the sun goes even lower.

thanks

yes @Chaser Zaks mention this in their code post. So is good to see that is confirmed by your observations

 

i just add on here. This thread started out about is there a relation between SL sun and RL sun and if so then what might it be

turns out No!. By confirmed observations of the team all working together. So well done everyone

and through this we worked out what the model shape of the SL inworld is most likely to be

so the last thing to ponder is:

did the SL dev team design the SL inworld model first and then code it up ?

or did they just code stuff up, and after 15 years doing it patch monkey style this is the shape you get when zillions of patch monkeys bang on pipes and keyboards

nobody needs to answer this  ok

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

12 hours ago, ellestones said:

Or even if gravity is the right way to describe it.  Is interesting tho for sure

I’ve seen more evidence of levity than gravity, and yes it is interesting. 

[Love Zhaoying]

33 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I’ve seen more evidence of levity than gravity, and yes it is interesting. 

Levites vs. gravlocks?

[Phorumities]

2 hours ago, Coby Foden said:

Second Life sun is made of a special shape changing prim.

At noon it's perfectly round. When it starts going lower in the sky the shape changes. Once in the afternoon it's again round, although a bit bigger than at noon. After that the shape changes again when the sun goes even lower.

In case you didn't know, in RL the sun and the moon both look bigger on the horizon than when over head.

[Love Zhaoying]

2 minutes ago, Phorumities said:

In case you didn't know, in RL the sun and the moon both look bigger on the horizon than when over head.

I did know that. I also know why.

[Coby Foden]

6 minutes ago, Phorumities said:

In case you didn't know, in RL the sun and the moon both look bigger on the horizon than when over head.

It's an illusion. When they are high in the sky there are no reference objects nearby to which to compare the size. Near the horizon there are references, so the brain fools us to think that the sun and moon look bigger near the horizon.

Edited July 24, 2018 by Coby Foden

[Phorumities]

Just now, Coby Foden said:

It's an illusion. When they are high in the sky there are no reference objects nearby to which to compare the size. Near the horizon there are references, so the brain fools us to think that the sun and moon look bigger near the horizon.

I said look bigger, not that they were bigger. Obviously this same illusion effect occurs in SL too.

[Coby Foden]

1 minute ago, Phorumities said:

I said look bigger, not that they were bigger. Obviously this same illusion effect occurs in SL too.

What I said is that it's an an illusion that they look bigger near the horizon. Our brain just fools us.
If we were able to remove (or hide, obscure) all reference objects near the horizon then the "looks bigger" illusion would not exist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_illusion

[Madelaine McMasters]

36 minutes ago, Phorumities said:

I said look bigger, not that they were bigger. Obviously this same illusion effect occurs in SL too.

Here are three snapshots of the SL sun.

Sunrise...

Midday...

Sunset...

The only reference object in each image is Snugs (one of the few times she cooperated with me). Camera settings, and distance from Snugs, did not change between snapshots.

Coby already provided you with direct evidence that the larger size of the rising/setting sun in SL is NOT an illusion. I won't bother to hope that this might be instructive, and make you think twice about what's "obvious" to you.

And, for anyone who's interested, the RL sun and moon are actually visually (as opposed to perceptually) smaller on the horizon than overhead. Atmospheric refraction compresses the disc vertically. That's why a rising/setting sun/moon appears oval, not round. In the image below, you can see that this effect increases as you approach the horizon. Notice that the moon is more flattened on the bottom than on the top.

 

Edited July 24, 2018 by Madelaine McMasters

[Rider Linden]

23 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

2) Place your thumb and index finger so that you can see the sun between them. Don’t worry, the SL Sun won’t hurt your eyes!

Under NO circumstances should you EVER look directly at the SL Sun without proper eye protection, it can be damaging to your sanity. 

(also, contrary to competing theories advanced here.  SL Stars are actually holes caused by feral meeroos that have escaped their pens and chewed their way through the sky dome into the Void Between.)

[Love Zhaoying]

8 minutes ago, Rider Linden said:

Under NO circumstances should you EVER look directly at the SL Sun without proper eye protection, it can be damaging to your sanity. 

(also, contrary to competing theories advanced here.  SL Stars are actually holes caused by feral meeroos that have escaped their pens and chewed their way through the sky dome into the Void Between.)

Thanks! I saw your picture and my first thought was, "What the Fractal"!

[Phorumities]

4 hours ago, Coby Foden said:

What I said is that it's an an illusion that they look bigger near the horizon. Our brain just fools us.
If we were able to remove (or hide, obscure) all reference objects near the horizon then the "looks bigger" illusion would not exist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_illusion

 

4 hours ago, Coby Foden said:

What I said is that it's an an illusion that they look bigger near the horizon. Our brain just fools us.
If we were able to remove (or hide, obscure) all reference objects near the horizon then the "looks bigger" illusion would not exist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_illusion

and what i said was it LOOKS bigger not that it was bigger

ooooo lunar eclipse this friday.... wait its not visible from America

*sighs*

ugh stupid phone, i double posted your quote

Edited July 24, 2018 by Phorumities

[Klytyna]

3 hours ago, Rider Linden said:

are actually holes caused by feral meeroos that have escaped their pens and chewed their way through the sky dome into the Void Between

...

"There are holes in the sky

Where the rain gets in

But they're ever so small

That's why rain is thin..."

A short poem by Spike Milligan
 

[Coby Foden]

2 hours ago, Phorumities said:

ooooo lunar eclipse this friday.... wait its not visible from America

*sighs*
ugh stupid phone, i double posted your quote

We're lucky this time in northern Europe. We can observe total lunar eclipse. The moon will turn then into dimly lit dark red.
Nothing spectacular like solar eclipse, but nevertheless interesting to watch.

(Never trust your phone. Phones have their own mind sometimes.)

Finally, we cannot always trust what our eyes see, and what our brain tries to guess what we see. Sometimes they get confused, like in the image below.

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

6 minutes ago, Phorumities said:

and what i said was it LOOKS bigger not that it was bigger

Here's the moon, on the left low in the sky and on the right directly overhead...

Camera settings and distance from Snugs are the same in both images. The larger size of the moon near moonset is real, the result of LL increasing the size of the moon image with decreasing altitude, to mimic the moon illusion. And I suspect they mimic the moon illusion because it doesn't happen to the same degree (if at all) in SL.

Coby said the RL sun/moon looks bigger on the horizon due to the moon illusion. It does. She said the SL sun is bigger near the horizon. It is. (So is the moon). You said that the moon illusion "obviously" happens in SL as well. That's not obvious to me at all.

[Coby Foden]

36 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

Here's the moon, on the left low in the sky and on the right directly overhead...

 

Now we need to bug the Linden gods.
Why the moon keeps its round shape where ever it is on the sky, and why the sun does not keep the round shape?

Edited July 24, 2018 by Coby Foden

[Rider Linden]

The moon doesn't need to keep its round shape.

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 minute ago, Coby Foden said:

Now we need to bug the Linden gods.
Why the moon keeps its round shape where ever it is on the sky, and why the sun does not keep the round shape?

I imagine it was an attempt to make sunrises and sunsets seem somewhat realistic whether there are clouds in the sky or not. If you watch sunrise/sunset over the ocean in SL, it's a pleasing sight, and reminiscent of all those images you've seen throughout your life. They did a pretty good job on sky color and intensity, capturing the blue/silver/peach/orange of twilight. It was an artistic/technical compromise and I think they did fine.

During my first few months in SL, I thought the sky was dark grey with pea green clouds. It wasn't until switching to a new computer that I discovered my environment settings had been all screwed up, stuck on those colors 24/7. That first day cycle, when I saw blue sky, white clouds, and a beautiful sunset giving way to inky black, sprinkled with stars, I fell in love with SL all over again.

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Rider Linden said:

The moon doesn't need to keep its round shape.

Shine on
Shine on deadly moon
Up in the sky?

Edited July 24, 2018 by Madelaine McMasters

[ellestones]

10 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I’ve seen more evidence of levity than gravity, and yes it is interesting. 

a musical interlude

 

[ellestones]

7 hours ago, Rider Linden said:

(also, contrary to competing theories advanced here.  SL Stars are actually holes caused by feral meeroos that have escaped their pens and chewed their way through the sky dome into the Void Between.)

this is what we get when a pharaoh-like entity makes a factual statement influenced by harvested foliage left as an offering in the temple, after the vestals have left for the evening

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

3 hours ago, Coby Foden said:

Finally, we cannot always trust what our eyes see.

Nor what our ears hear...

Nor what we recall...

Years ago, my neighbor told me about a lunch she'd had with some friends. She told me this story more than once. During one of her recollections, I got ahead of her, recalling what she'd told me, but as if I'd been there and heard it myself. If you were to ask her today about that lunch, she would tell you I was there.

Edited July 24, 2018 by Madelaine McMasters

[Amanda Crisp]

Maybe we should send an SL spacecraft to go measure the distance to the SL sun.

We could build a nice Mesh spaceship, I could select three avatars (who I don’t care for) as the crew and launch them to glory as “first to land on the sun”

Edited July 25, 2018 by AmandaKeen