Astronomy

 
People of every era and every culture have been fascinated by the cycles of day and night, seasons and years, and the vast array of lights in the night sky. Raieh's astronomers have a lot to keep them wondering.

The Moons of Raieh

Two moons orbit Raieh. Although each culture has its own names for these moons, they are commonly distinguished by their distinct colors: the red moon (redish-orange, the way Mars is red) and the white moon. There are 21.23 days per red moon, and 35.38 days per white moon. The red moon appears slightly larger than the white moon, and it occludes the white moon when they are both full.

The Raien Year

There are 361.821 days per year on Raieh. There are 17 full red moons per year, and 10 full white moons.

The Vihani Calendar

The oldest Vihani astronomers have actually computed the following values from milennia of measurements:

• 17.0466846153846153846153846153... red moons per year
• 10.22801076923076923076923076923... white moons per year

Really. Not kidding. These guys have a lot of time on their hands.

The vihani consider these two numbers mystical: 846153 and 076923.

Now, the Vihani calendar of 362 day loses almost one entire day every five years, so the Vihani have institute "drop" years: that is to say that every fifth year only has 361 days. Every 50 years, however, the extra day mysteriously "returns"; that is to say, every fiftieth year is actually 362 days long.

But that's not the weird part.

The weird part is that every 1,000 years there is an extra day in the year, for a total of 363 days in that year. A very special day, indeed.