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drothe · Guest

I just got the latest text message. Feb 8, 10:34 PM EST

"my sunset just happened"

**Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:36 pm

drothe · Boot Joined: 08 Feb 2008 Posts: 20 Location: Brick, NJ

I can't edit the above post because I wasn't registered when I made it. Smile

Anyway, sunset on June 17, 2007 (the in-game date right now) happened at 8:29 PM EST.

Sunset today happened at 5:20 PM EST, not that it matters.

Not sure if any of that really helps, but I'm a literal thinker and it was the first thing that came to mind to look at. My point in saying, really, is that for his sunset to happen around 8:29 PM and for me to get a message from him at 10:34 PM EST saying so, it narrows down his time zone and at the very least gives us something to work with in figuring out where he is.

**Posted:** Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:50 pm

mousekinn · Decorated Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 176

Well, it may be a fairly decent assumption that he's in a national or state park of some kind, seeing as he's in a crow's nest fire watch tower (and those just don't pop up everywhere to my knowledge) and he/she has mentioned bears. That really doesn't help us narrow it down though ^^;

the timing of the sunset, as far as my research has shown, seems really bizarre - doesn't the sun set near 10pm that time of year?

**Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:09 am

flutterby · received from: 977-77 Feb 9, 7:14 am EST

[UPDATE] new text message

**Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 10:37 am

TatorsDad · Boot Joined: 20 Nov 2007 Posts: 27

Dont forget that in June, we are on Daylight Saving Time not Standard time so that skews things an hour. Also, the time of sunrise and sunset is dependent on the lattitude and the date.

**Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:11 pm

Blackbird · Boot Joined: 07 Jan 2008 Posts: 25

Also, it's been days since the message that he was in the crows nest. There's nothing to indicate he/she is still there. I would assume that he/she would have kept moving on. Though, with water and food, who knows.

**Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:37 pm

mousekinn · Decorated Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 176

I'd say he's staying put, as there's a good chance he would have fallen off the cell network by now if he kept moving.

I've got Bismark, ND as having sunset at 8:40 on June 17th - but that's without Daylight savings - with it is 9:40. If you start plugging in that extra hour, it puts him up in Canada.

My head is starting to hurt, I'm leaving this one up to Trish

**Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:33 pm

flutterby · received from 977-77 Feb 9, 4:32 pm EST

[UPDATE] new text message

**Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 5:35 pm

Dunia · Veteran Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 75

2:33 PM pacific.

"two helicopters flew towards the sun just now"

On the map at that time were 2 UH-60s flying due north.

Very close coordinates were -104.13 , 45.706

**Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 5:37 pm

GenPatton43 · Veteran Joined: 16 Nov 2007 Posts: 116

Re: [UPDATE] new text message

**Posted:** Sat Feb 09, 2008 5:59 pm

Dunia · Veteran Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 75

So here is my guess:

We have to locate his/her GPS position based on the position of the sun.

Someone check my logic here and see if I'm missing something.

I don't think the locations I posted of the helicopters on the map matter. He didn't say they were overhead, or how far away, or if they were to the east or west of him.
The only thing he says is there are 2 helicopters flying towards the sun.
On the map the helicopters were travelling almost due north. I saw them angle slightly to the east as they travelled north, but just barely. Patton posted N/NW, so maybe I missed part of their flight. Patton had the position in S. Dakota or Wyoming, while I had the helicopters in Montana when I got the text message.

Summer solstice for 2007 was on June 21st. That's when the sun is at it's most northern position in our hemisphere. So if the sun was due north, wouldn't the time of the text message be approximately his/her solar noon?

I've found some calculators out there that give sunrise, sunset and solar noon based on lat/lon, but nothing that does it in reverse.

**Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2008 12:09 am

MerRabbit · Veteran Joined: 11 Jul 2007 Posts: 126

On trish's blog it says that by using the time of 8:29 as sunset she was able to determine longitude. Following this I took the Lat/long coords of Denver, CO and messed around with them here: http://www.csgnetwork.com/sunriseset.html .

Sunset for Denver was 8:30.

39.733056
-104.766111 yields a sunset of 8:29 it is due east of Denver.
you can look it up through google or on this site:

http://hobbiton.thisside.net/advmap.html

edited: to refine data and for errors

**Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2008 2:11 pm

flutterby · received from 977-77 Feb 10, 8:42 pm EST

[UPDATE] New text message

**Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2008 9:48 pm

tygr20 · received from 977-77 Feb 10, 8:42 pm EST

Re: [UPDATE] New text message

**Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2008 10:47 pm

_________________
Followed Nate, couldn't find Tom Tooman, anyone got any good leads for someone else to ~~stalk~~ help?

@tygr20
www.tygr20.com

mousekinn · Decorated Joined: 21 Dec 2007 Posts: 176

I don't know, Tygr, after walking for days, finding myself stranded in a tree house and too dumb to even TRY to mess with the radio, seeing signs of life and having no will or brains to try to get their attention (unless he's purposefully hiding?)... I'd be wanting to kill myself too.

(In all honestly, I saw the nod towards "eyes" - which seems to be so important to this game - and wondered the same Smile

**Posted:** Sun Feb 10, 2008 11:10 pm