# Moonless Nights



## Gryphos (Oct 6, 2014)

So the calendar of my world is set not in months but lunar cycles (12 to a year), there being thirty days in each cycle. In the real world their are actually twenty-nine, but in my world each lunar cycle ends with a day known as a 'Moonless Night'. On Moonless Nights there is not only no moon in the sky but no stars. The sky is literally just a black void. In times of old people would be terrified of Moonless Nights and attach loads of superstition to them, but less so when the story is set, at which point there are street lamps and stuff to light up urban areas.

However, I haven't actually come up with an explanation for why Moonless Nights occur. In all honesty, I'll likely just put it down to some kind of magical reason. But just for curiosity's sake, is there any possible explanation for there being no moon or stars on a set day at the end of a lunar cycle? Also, what are the possible in-depth consequences of such a phenomenon? How would wildlife be effected? etc.


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## WooHooMan (Oct 6, 2014)

Does the Moon/stars disappear completely or are they just not visible?
Because, the latter would be much easier to explain and much, much less ecologically devastating.


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## Svrtnsse (Oct 6, 2014)

In the Coldfire Trilogy by C S Friedman there is something called True Night. It's something that occurs at irregular intervals and it's characterised by there not being any moon or any stars in the sky. As I recall the explanation is that the planet the story takes place on is at the very edge of the galaxy and every now and then it so happens that during the night there really isn't anything in the sky to see.

Coldfire Trilogy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The link has an explanation of it, but it doesn't quite mesh with what I remember from the books. Either way, it's complicated, but I like the idea of the dark night, when there really isn't any light at all anywhere.


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## Gryphos (Oct 6, 2014)

WooHooMan said:


> Does the Moon/stars disappear completely or are they just not visible?
> Because, the latter would be much easier to explain and much, much less ecologically devastating.



The stars are definitely still there, just not visible.


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## Sheilawisz (Oct 6, 2014)

Hello, Gryphos.

I cannot think of any scientific explanation for the phenomenon that you are describing. This could be achieved easily by means of a cloudy sky at night, but I see that you need it to happen following a regular cycle and that makes it much more complicated.

You would need a supernatural explanation for these nights when the stars become invisible and the sky is just a black void... Perhaps it could be the result of an ancient curse that affected the entire world, or maybe the work of demons or something that enjoy the fear it causes on the people.

Anyway, you do not really need a Moonless Night:

The common nights used to inspire loads of fear, legends and superstition in our world before electricity was invented. People feared the darkness, ghosts, evil spirits and criminals that used to attack during the night, because they experienced a complete, intimidating darkness that we have forgotten about in the modern world.

The stars do not provide enough light even if the sky is full of them, only the Full Moon provided some relief and made night more friendly.


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## Steerpike (Oct 6, 2014)

Maybe there is some dark matter in the system, and once a month everything is aligned correctly so the people on the surface of the planet are looking at the dark matter. Of course, that would explain the stars but the moon would be closer than the dark matter, so you'd also have to have the orbit of the moon around the planet such that it is on the day side of the planet on the Moonless Night, so the inhabitants don't see the moon either.


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## WooHooMan (Oct 6, 2014)

You know what makes the stars and moon non-visible?  The sun.
Once a month, a small red star is visible in the night sky.  Though the red star's light is dim compared to the sun, it's bright enough in the night to overpower the stars and moon.
Not sure what kind of effect this kind of thing would have on nature but I can imagine old cultures seeing the Night Sun as some kind of omen or something.  Or a bizarro Lunar deity.  
Or maybe some kind of fog shows-up in the atmosphere and blocks out the stars like a dust cloud.  Fog/dark clouds can be creepy.  
Just throwing out some ideas.


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## Gryphos (Oct 7, 2014)

Sheilawisz said:
			
		

> Anyway, you do not really need a Moonless Night:
> 
> The common nights used to inspire loads of fear, legends and superstition in our world before electricity was invented. People feared the darkness, ghosts, evil spirits and criminals that used to attack during the night, because they experienced a complete, intimidating darkness that we have forgotten about in the modern world.
> 
> The stars do not provide enough light even if the sky is full of them, only the Full Moon provided some relief and made night more friendly.



True, but I still want Moonless Nights because I think it's a really cool and interesting concept.



			
				WooHooMan said:
			
		

> You know what makes the stars and moon non-visible? The sun.
> Once a month, a small red star is visible in the night sky. Though the red star's light is dim compared to the sun, it's bright enough in the night to overpower the stars and moon.
> Not sure what kind of effect this kind of thing would have on nature but I can imagine old cultures seeing the Night Sun as some kind of omen or something. Or a bizarro Lunar deity.
> Or maybe some kind of fog shows-up in the atmosphere and blocks out the stars like a dust cloud. Fog/dark clouds can be creepy.
> Just throwing out some ideas.



This is cool, but I'm really going for there being absolutely no light in the sky, so I can't really have a second sun kind of thing.

I think I'm definitely going to go for a supernatural cause on this, mainly because, thinking about it, any scientific explanation would be unexplainable to the reader, as the setting's society does not have such an advanced grasp of astrophysics.

As to the supernatural cause, there's any number of possibilities. At the moment I'm thinking maybe it's on that one day that Occult Energy is thickest in the atmosphere. It would mean that on the day of a Moonless Night the sun would be slightly dimmer than usual, but at night there would be no light whatsoever. This also explains some of the ideas I had about people attaching superstitions to it, as various strange magical happenings would indeed happen on the one night when magic is thickest in the air.


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## Penpilot (Oct 7, 2014)

Well, if there's no real need for the science of it in the story, then you can just have it happen with no other explanation than because it's cool. If the science or magic of it helps your thought process, then by all means try figuring it out. But if it's hampering you, forget about it.


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## ThinkerX (Oct 8, 2014)

Ok...

At the end of each lunar cycle, something on the moon, some ancient magical or technological device, releases a 'cloud' (for want of a better term) that obscures the moon and the atmosphere around the planet.  

Possible side effect: as this cloud dissipates, there might be a spectacular sunrise the next day as the sunlight interacts with the decaying particles making up the cloud.  'Darkest before the glorious dawn,' type deal.


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## psychotick (Oct 8, 2014)

Hi,

As I see it the real problem you have here is trying to link these total blackouts with the lunar cycle. That doesn't work well. But what could happen is that there could be some sort of cloud in the solar system that blocks a certain amount of light. The effect would occur when the planet passes through the cloud, say for a month or two during a typical year. 

Now during this period you might well see the sun each day, because the light from it is bright enough to pierce the gloom - though having said that it might be strangely coloured or a bit fainter than normal. Temperatures might also drop a little. You might or might not see the moon in its various phases, depending on how thick the cloud is. But you would not see the stars because the light fromthem is too faint.

All of which means that the locals have eg two months a year where their night sky is starless, but might have a dim moon. And when the moon vanishes at night the world would be pitch black. 

Cheers, Greg.


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## Terry Greer (Oct 8, 2014)

The moon always vanishes (effectively) once a month when it's close to the sun. (even a day or two either side of this period you only get to see it as a thin crescent just before sunrise or just after sunset (depending on if it's waxing or waning). A moonless night is the best night for seeing starts normally (and for those of us who run moth traps the best night to get a good catch).

On earth many animal species are tied into a lunar cycle (either a full moon or no moon) as these give the largest tides.

If you had a starless night it would be truly dark - with no light to see by (I'm assuming you mean no other cel;estial bodies as well such as planets to light the darkness). That would leave no light to be amplified by any creature's night vision, so only creatures with echolocation (or touch senses such as whiskers and smell) - would go out. 

Few of the explanations for a starless night so far make much sense to me (dark matter and clouds in particular - if they were that dense they would have other major effects) - and I dislike a supernatural explanation as I find those ill thought through and I always hate poor explanations in fantasy as well as SF.
The best explanation so far is are that it is a lone star well outside a galaxy - I vote for Svrtnsse's solution as the most elegant. 

Otherwise go the whole hog and have the world man/deity made and artificial. Sure you don't need to explain it away - but personally I prefer a believable explanation always.


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