unforum

[Leeravitz]

I'd plead ignorance again, but, surely, if we aren't missing something that tells us an exact date, the theory behind identification would surely be something like:

1. The single satellites (green,purple) are probably geosynchronous, and can therefore be effectively identified through positioning, regardless of precise date.

2. The constellations are preusmably not geosynchronous, but there are enough of them that the basic arc of the distribution might be able to alert you to the function, regardless of precise date (so, there seems to be a lot of agreement that yellow is likeliest GPS).

The main problem with identification, in fact, appears to be that there are too many potential satellites to choose from in approximately the right places - perhaps our scan of the card is not precise enough to help us pinpoint things here, but I'd have thought that getting positioning on the card exact in the first place would be difficult. It would be interesting to see how the card itself was generated. Is it hand drawn, computer generated, or what??

[NovacaineX]

The card was generated using a piece of software called Freefall. It is the same software I was using for my earlier screenshots while trying to pinpoint the Satellites. Unfortunatly, the software is only for Mac's so 90% of people can't use it. But if anyone has any ideas for what satellites they might be that are different than what's been posted, let me know and i'll show you what it looks like in Freefall.

[erekose]

[Kalt]

Apologies for neglecting the thread for a couple days -- Here's a different picture taken with slightly less exposure.

And Novacaine's post seems to be nearly in the exact same time/date (lacking year) as the one on the card. The reason the light looks different is because I believe the camera is a little farther north than it should be (A little more of the north pole shown than on the card).

[mattlock]

Does anyone has a proper picture of this card? The only ones I have seen so far are photos, and not very good ones. Doesn't anyone have a scanner anymore?

[sixsidedsquare]

The reason there aint a good scan, is because no one actually has the card.
These are just photo's of a tv screne from E3, and all we have at the moment.

[Leeravitz]

Thanks for the scan, Kalt. It does look a fair bit clearer. It's also much more obvious what the complete card looks like - and it certainly doesn't appear that we're obviously missing some vital info on dating that's been given etc.

So, maybe this will come down to taking some educated guesses, based on approximations...

[NovacaineX]

Hmm.. the new picture is alot better, but we'd still need the date to really solve this one. Maybe thats the whole puzzle, find the date

[misteraitch]

just a suggestion NovacaineX, [and feel free to slap me down if you've tried it already] but what about May 28th 1737?

According to my timeline calculations, this is the year that the Perplex City calander changed from BC to AC, and it's the most relevant date I can think of what with it being the date of the Syzygy.

[oliverkeers13]

[misteraitch]

I'll just get my coat

[Leeravitz]

I'm guessing that whatever the relevant date is, it has to be fairly recent as things like GPS appear to be depicted on the card. So, other 'interesting' dates like, say, the period in 'our' early 1970's when Perplexians first picked up transmissions from Earth are also unlikely to help.

[misteraitch]

I hadn't thought of that

Just out of interest - can dates prior a satelitte's launch be entered?

For example - if a date prior to the construction of the satellite is entered does the satellite disappear, or does it it show the satellite in a location as if it were in existence?

[oliverkeers13]

Have we tried the night the cube was nicked?

[Leeravitz]

I'd be surprised if somehow hadn't tried that, but you never know - it may have slipped under the radar in all the kerfuffle...