Help me, science!

[path]

If the Zalanthan sky is red, what color is the sunset?

If the sun is also red, is it still very visible against the sky? Are they markedly different reds? Is the sky not beautiful on Zalanthas as it is on Earth?

Help me, science!

[Kismetic]

Zalanthans would be able to see in the infrared, so ...  red, red, and ...  so red you can't even see it with human eyeballs.

Edit:  I should add that it's impossible to actually answer those questions seriously.  Insufficient data.  The sun would be distinct, though, assuredly.  Since we know the sky is red, and the sun is red, the sunset would be some flavor of red.  I think this is mostly up to your imagination, sorry.

[Delirium]

I think the sky is more... orange-y red. At least from some of the descriptions I've seen.

[Bast]

Mars rover has some awesome pics of sunsets.

[kayza]

The sun is like a bake potato.

[RogueGunslinger]

Purple.

Haven't ya'll seen a  deep red sunset before?

[AmandaGreathouse]

Purple.

Haven't ya'll seen a  deep red sunset before?

Yeah, that's how I always pictured it. I may paint what I think it looks like then link a picture of it or something if I get inspired.

[boog]

It feels like this picture was touched up a bit to me, but it's as close to purple/red sunset as I can find.

[Riya OniSenshi]

If I understand correctly, it would merely just be more red than normal, not purple.

The reason we get purple is because we're seeing the sun reflect off more atmosphere than usual during sunset, so the reflected Red, Orange, and Yellow light gets blended into the diffused Blue and Violet light.



Zalanthas' atmosphere, as far as we know at least, diffuses Red light the easiest, and as a red dwarf star usually emits little to no Blue or Violet light compared to a Sun like ours, there's no particular reason to think we'd see any sort of purple at all.

There is however, magic in Zalanthas, and the system is contain in a giant crystal sphere anyway, so trying to do arcane physics on much of anything in the game is a waste of time.
But you will be referred to a Templar if any of my PCs hear your PC say the sky was some other color aside from red/red-orange.

[path]

Yes. That's why I called on the power of science. In my imagination it was purple, but once I applied logic, that fell apart for me.

[MeTekillot]

Athas is in a crystal sphere. Zalanthas is not, to our knowledge.

[RogueGunslinger]

If I understand correctly, it would merely just be more red than normal, not purple.

The reason we get purple is because we're seeing the sun reflect off more atmosphere than usual during sunset, so the reflected Red, Orange, and Yellow light gets blended into the diffused Blue and Violet light.



Zalanthas' atmosphere, as far as we know at least, diffuses Red light the easiest, and as a red dwarf star usually emits little to no Blue or Violet light compared to a Sun like ours, there's no particular reason to think we'd see any sort of purple at all.

There is however, magic in Zalanthas, and the system is contain in a giant crystal sphere anyway, so trying to do arcane physics on much of anything in the game is a waste of time.
But you will be referred to a Templar if any of my PCs hear your PC say the sky was some other color aside from red/red-orange.

You're assuming the sun is a red giant and not just the regular old sun behind a haze of red dust and sand.

[AmandaGreathouse]

If I understand correctly, it would merely just be more red than normal, not purple.

The reason we get purple is because we're seeing the sun reflect off more atmosphere than usual during sunset, so the reflected Red, Orange, and Yellow light gets blended into the diffused Blue and Violet light.



Zalanthas' atmosphere, as far as we know at least, diffuses Red light the easiest, and as a red dwarf star usually emits little to no Blue or Violet light compared to a Sun like ours, there's no particular reason to think we'd see any sort of purple at all.

There is however, magic in Zalanthas, and the system is contain in a giant crystal sphere anyway, so trying to do arcane physics on much of anything in the game is a waste of time.
But you will be referred to a Templar if any of my PCs hear your PC say the sky was some other color aside from red/red-orange.

You're assuming the sun is a red giant and not just the regular old sun behind a haze of red dust and sand.

That's my line of thinking as well, that it's largely because of the same airborne dust that (absent in some rooms) leaves the sky appearing orange, and in a few rooms yet, leaves it even other colors. I would imagine that those things play into the visibility of the hypothetical (seriously, lol) stars, too. If the sky's red, you probably aren't seeing stars, and the sun probably looks redder, too. (just my thoughts)

[Maker]

Since this is turning into a serious debate on physics, let me chime in that we don't know what gasses make up the atmosphere, which would also have an affect on perceived color.

[James de Monet]

It feels like this picture was touched up a bit to me, but it's as close to purple/red sunset as I can find.

A bit? They cranked the saturation on that little gem up to 11. (Yes, I'm a touch annoyed by the practice - over saturated colors do to our perceptions of nature what airbrushing does to our perception of women.   But in the fashion of a true Zalanthan hypocrite, that doesn't mean I've never done it to my photos. I do try to limit myself to adjusting the photograph to the level of saturation that my eye perceived, however.)

In regards to the sunset, though, the colors of our sky have to do with the wavelengths of the spectrum of visible light. Blue light (on earth) has one of the shortest wavelengths, and therefore gets diffused the most when passing through the atmosphere (which is why the sky looks blue - blue light gets scattered about the most). Red light has the longest wavelength, and therefore penetrates the furthest, leaving it to be one of the colors still visible after the others have been completely diffused. If we assume that the red light on Zalanthas is due to dust (atmospheric particles), and that the world still has the same spectrum of visible light, then the sunset probably wouldn't really have any colors associated with it at all. It would probably just go from red to dark. If it's due to a different spectrum of visible light, however, all bets are off. Sunset could well be green, as that is that is the complementary color to red (as orange earth sunsets are to blue sky, when blue is the least visible wavelength, orange is what you will see). But then, if the light spectrum is different, so is the system of additive color. *shrug*

[Riya OniSenshi]

That would only be an appropriate assumption to make if Zalanthas does not share the same history as the world in Dark Sun does - namely that defilers used up so much energy from the sun that it accelerated its decay from a Sun such as ours to a Red Dwarf.

If there was enough debris to affect the color of the atmosphere it would be interfering with the actual amount of light that reaches the surface, which there doesn't seem to be a problem with.

And yes, as Maker says, we don't know the composition of the atmosphere, the distances between the sun and planet, nor if the system is truly enclosed in a very dense crystal sphere as its Dark Sun equivalent resides in or not.

[FantasyWriter]

Doesn't the fact that stars are sometimes visible (taken from IG experiences and staff posts on the subject) throw out the crystal sphere argument?

[MeTekillot]

I think defiling magick actually damaged the planet's atmosphere itself, instead of the sun.

speculation tho

[Riya OniSenshi]

Doesn't the fact that stars are sometimes visible (taken from IG experiences and staff posts on the subject) throw out the crystal sphere argument?

No, because stars were visible in the night skies of the other D&D realm settings, yet they were pretty much all encased in crystal spheres.

[Schrodingers Cat]

Wizards choose the color of the sunsets (and everything else) in Zalanthas.

[HavokBlue]

Wizards choose the color of the sunsets (and everything else) in Zalanthas.

The gypsies have a sunset control panel. It's in the closet down the hall from the waterslides.

[BleakOne]

no its because dwarfs dont use punctuation and the sky is mad

[path]

It feels like this picture was touched up a bit to me, but it's as close to purple/red sunset as I can find.

A bit? They cranked the saturation on that little gem up to 11. (Yes, I'm a touch annoyed by the practice - over saturated colors do to our perceptions of nature what airbrushing does to our perception of women.   But in the fashion of a true Zalanthan hypocrite, that doesn't mean I've never done it to my photos. I do try to limit myself to adjusting the photograph to the level of saturation that my eye perceived, however.)

In regards to the sunset, though, the colors of our sky have to do with the wavelengths of the spectrum of visible light. Blue light (on earth) has one of the shortest wavelengths, and therefore gets diffused the most when passing through the atmosphere (which is why the sky looks blue - blue light gets scattered about the most). Red light has the longest wavelength, and therefore penetrates the furthest, leaving it to be one of the colors still visible after the others have been completely diffused. If we assume that the red light on Zalanthas is due to dust (atmospheric particles), and that the world still has the same spectrum of visible light, then the sunset probably wouldn't really have any colors associated with it at all. It would probably just go from red to dark. If it's due to a different spectrum of visible light, however, all bets are off. Sunset could well be green, as that is that is the complementary color to red (as orange earth sunsets are to blue sky, when blue is the least visible wavelength, orange is what you will see). But then, if the light spectrum is different, so is the system of additive color. *shrug*

This was helpful and disappointing in equal measure.

[kayza]

Muk Tep is holding the flat world that is Zalanthas on his shoulder because he's that awesome.

[Bahliker]

There's only one thing we know for sure about Zalanthan sunsets as they relate to the atmosphere: they're HARSH.

So damn harsh. The harshest sunsets you'll ever see, man.

Outside that and a few spare room descs, all we have is imagination. What I imagine is that the known world, a tiny little new joysey-sized strip of rocks and dust and sometimes plants, is the only inhabitable scrap of land on an otherwise deadly planet. The rest of this planet is comprised of intense heat, storms, lava, explosions, poisonous gases, and monsters large enough to devour cities. Who knows. The point is, in my imagination all of these elements are so mysterious that the sunset, which is light passing through many hundreds of miles of the UNknown world, could be anything at all. Sparkles. Spirals! Explosions. In my mind it's a bizarro aurora borealis, a malicious undulating spectrum of evil rainbows.

Fortunately, I keep that well locked away inside my own head. I never impose it on the people with which I play.