Doug... wrote:

Can you imagine living on such a moon, though? On one side of the
thing, the primary would hang like a huge, baleful presence, dominating
the sky and everything under it. On the other side, there would just be
the alternation of the sun, stars and other moons. Such a dichotomy
would have profound effects on any civilization that arose there.

Some non-arbitary marks on our globe: North and South poles and the equator.

The moon would also have a north and south pole & equator. And there'd
be four non arbitrary points on its equator: Gas giant pole (point
closest to the primary), anti gas giant pole, & two points on the
equator 90 degrees from these. The six points would define 3 great
circles (of which the equator is one). Their globe would be marked like
an octahedron.

The planet side would have frequent and long solar eclipses during the
spring and fall equinox and be eclipse free the summer and winter
solstice if the orbit plane is tilted enough.

Midnight during the spring and fall equinox would be of special
significance: The moon's shadow would be cast onto the center of the gas
giant as viewed from the moon's inhabitants.



--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html