Celestia Forums

... hmmm yes, I think you're right. Maybe things haven't improved so much, but I thought I detected a trend. I must have been lucky.

I haven't seen Pitch Black, but I picked up the DVD case, read the back and put it down, because I suspected what you say. I tried putting two inclined rings around Saturn with Celestia, but it rejects a second ring set, and ignores any inclination for rings. So, no Pitch Black system in Celestia!

Back to the 'wrong sun angle' mistake: the worst example I recently saw: Episode "Cold Lazarus" in Stargate season 1: the locals wake up late in the middle of the day. One woman looks at the sun to check how high it is, except the actress looked 90° away from the sun, and pretended to be blinded by it. You could see her face lit from the side by natural sunlight when she did it! There weren't even any special effects to screw up! Tsk.

Spiff.

Spiff,

Don't forget that an actress' eyes are rather expensive...
It's amazing how many takes some scenes require, as revealed by some of the "directors' behind-the-scene specials" on the later DVDs.

While a pair of non-coplanar or even intersecting rings might be unlikely, I would think that they could exist for a short while as a result of the destruction of icy moons (comets?) in highly inclined orbits. How many thousands of years they might last, though, I have not the slightest idea...

Now, on considering the dynamics of the solar system in Pitch Black, particularly regarding how to get two ring systems of different inclinations round a planet, and how the planet's orbits could be that close and still be stable... :p

Or that the sun's light was dimming as it entered eclipse... before it even got anywhere near the gas giant...

Don...great stuff...I've been doing some of this stuff myself...I used Bryce to get one of Jack's Luna models on the moon and was looking forward to doing the same with Beagle. Once I reclaim my 'Extrasolar' textures I may post some shots...I need to read Seldens FAQ about add-ons...I really am new again to this!

Regards...bh.