[Lemmit] [TV Spoilers] Astronomer here! Details about Silo location…

cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/79907

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The original was posted on /r/siloseries by /u/Andromeda321 on 2023-07-03 15:47:31+00:00.

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Just putting this up because I’ve seen many posts speculating about the location of the Silo, but not putting it in the context of what we DO know, which is it’s in the northern hemisphere because the “W” is the constellation Cassiopeia. Which, for those unfamiliar, is a VERY northern constellation- more north than the Big Dipper, one of the first ones you hit going from the Little Dipper/Ursa Minor. Which leads to the following details:

• The city is to the north of the Silo(s) (bc it’s just over the ridge where we see Cassiopeia), so per the panoramas at the end (with the mountains in the opposite direction of the city) those mountains are to the south. I mention this for those detailing how the snapshot of the city must be to the east of Atlanta- celestially this just doesn’t hold up.
• We don’t know how high the rim is obscuring the city, but with the height of Cassiopeia I’m gonna bet if anything Atlanta is a bit too south for it to be visible that high and clearly. Even from say Florida today you need a decent horizon and good viewing to easily spot it, so definitely not south of there; similarly at European/ Canadian latitudes Cassiopeia starts getting pretty direct overhead. So I think mid-latitude lower 48 makes sense.
• also worth noting, since the camera is fairly narrow angle that they clean, there’s likely never a view of the sun and the moon in the Silo, nor of the planets. In these latitudes those are always in the southern sky from you, with the furthest they go “north” is East and West. Maybe a brief one, but my evidence here is you know what’s way more obvious to a stargazer than Cassiopeia? The planet Venus, or Jupiter, which are honking bright in comparison and they move, on the same ecliptic line as the sun (moon is a tiny bit off but not much). More interesting and easier to track, but they aren’t mentioned! So makes me think the moon is never seen either, for starters.
• That said there is a sun in the simulation. Unclear if that’s just bc they can view 360 degrees, or there’s enough fake things in the simulation that who cares about the sun in the wrong part of the sky. :)

Finally this all goes with the caveat that often constellations etc in movies and tv are just plain wrong- James Cameron famously obsessed over details of accuracy in Titanic for example but the sky was 100% wrong with the North Atlantic in spring. But I’m hoping if they included constellations as a plot point we can assume someone checked what would be accurate.