r/reddeadmysteries • u/MajesticCaptain8052 • Jul 18 '23
Resource Star Cycle Map
Why this might be useful:
- For greater immersion (could maybe be used well in immersive RP servers on RedM)
- Some of us still speculate whether there are mysteries connected to the night sky in this game
- Learn a little about the constellations along the way
I´m trying to write this in a way that someone who has no idea of astronomy (such as myself!) can use the tools in game with this information to identify constellations. For those of you that are more familiar a lot of this will be obsolete, and possibly counter-intuitive!
What you will need:
- Binoculars (available from beginning of game)
- Compass ( ↓ + Y / ∆ ), or good sense of where North is on the map (minimap works too)
- The Blessings of the Weather Gods (good luck)
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We should get familiar with two objects in the night sky for this to work, Pleiades (asterism in Taurus) and Polaris (the North Star), .
Pleiades was important to various tribes of Native American stargazers, to the Lakota they had names such as Thayamnipha (Animals head) and Wichincala Sakowin (Seven Sisters), to the O´odham when they (Xatca) cross the sky is the proper time for storytelling. the Pleiades are probably one of the most easily identifiable clusters of stars in the RDR night sky, and we can use Polaris to approximate their location.
Polaris was also an important star to the Lakota, and its importance is represented in game in the naming of Lake Owanjila (Wichahpi Owanzila - The Star that does not move)
In game though this isn´t quite true, the star moves quite a bit, although still being the star that moves the least in the night sky, circling an invisible center* over 20 days before returning to its original position *(from our perspective, this is likely just representing the earths rotation)
As the north star, it is directly north at all times. You can easily locate it by using the compass in your minimap and facing your character directly north. The Moon also passes under Polaris at around midnight each night.
We can use Polaris and its surrounding stars as a measuring tool for where we are in the cycle. It is beneficial to imagine them as a clock moving counter-clockwise. Similar to a conventional clock we can imagine 2 hand of varying length, with the smaller being the hour hand. We will then use the position of the "hour-hand" to find our position in the cycle.
Instead of hours its easier to imagine this clock like a compass. Then, judging which direction the hour-hand is facing will allow us to predict our place in the cycle.
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------------------------------------------N-----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------NW----------NE--------------------------------------
----------------------------W--------------------------E---------------------------------
----------------------------------SW----------SE--------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------S----------------------------------------------
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* in the above links, the "North" photos are actually the zenith (looking directly above the player). For an idea of what is going on directly north see here
** there are certain nights ( 9, 19 ) that are hard to categorize as they could be interpreted as belonging to one of two directions, something to be mindful of (check the above clock for reference)
*** The screenshots were taken at 11pm each night, so your night sky might look a little different, but the same constellations should be there.
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We can cross reference this "clocks" position with Pleiades to give us a quick, general idea of where we are.
this video can help illustrate this
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There are other possible methods for tracking the stars positions, or finding the north star. One of the corners of the Obelisk faces directly north, and we can use its indents as a measuring tool of the distance between the Moon at roughly 12am and Polaris
We could also use the reticles in our binoculars to measure the distance between Polaris and the Moon anywhere on the map at the same time (roughly 12am as the moon passes Polaris)
Using the binoculars (no zoom), and using the Moon´s bright-half as a level, we can get a rough idea of where we are in the cycle. The lower Polaris is (closer to the center of our binoculars), the further away Pleiades are from us.
The problem with these two methods is that they are even more reliant on having optimal weather at a semi-specific time (11:45 - 00:15) whilst the moon passes Polaris. From my experience its pretty unlikely that you will get the clear sky you are looking for, and so I suggest using the first method.
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Hopefully this is useful to some players or mystery hunters. My aim in the future is to try and do something similar, but with Native American constellations as opposed to the traditional Western ones. I think if there is still mysteries left to explore with regards the dial on Mt Shann, or Burial / Ritual site alignments it seems more sensible to refer to Native American mythology and astrology.
note to mods: there are external links to a closed subreddit i created for this purpose, as I had to create 20+ pages. Hopefully this is within the guidelines set out in Rule 4. Thanks!
5
u/ChuyMJ12 Jul 18 '23
Amazing work! Is there any chance that the rock glyph at Mt. Shann has something to do with constellations, either Western or Native American constellations? (I don’t know if that’s been investigated, sorry if it has).