Transiting the Sun

[Lorizael]

Okay. Let's say you've got a circle the diameter of the Sun and positioned so that it orbits the Sun once every two months. The circle blocks visible light and it's more or less on the plane of the ecliptic. What does this look like to Earth? That is, how long will each transit last, how often will transits occur (once every two months?), etc. Hopefully you'll all be more useful than you were in my last thread, dammit.

[Perfection]

So presuming perfect alignment and circular orbits of both Earth and the object and that Earth and the object orbit in the same direction in the same plane, and defining a month as exactly 1/12 of a year the transits will occur every 1/5 of a year (73 days).

I will try to calculate transit length next...

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

What does this look like to Earth?

Dark, occasionally.

[Al B. Sure!]

Between this random question, the name for a Texas that conquers Mexico, and the rice farming with clones, Lorizael is either working on some bizarre piece of fiction or is ****ing insane.

[Thoth]

Between this random question, the name for a Texas that conquers Mexico, and the rice farming with clones, Lorizael is either working on some bizarre piece of fiction or is ****ing insane.

Note that those are not mutually exclusive options.

[Dinner]

Dark(er), occasionally.

Fixed. It would probably look like a solar eclipse.

[Lorizael]

Between this random question, the name for a Texas that conquers Mexico, and the rice farming with clones, Lorizael is either working on some bizarre piece of fiction or is ****ing insane.

Yes.

[Lorizael]

So presuming perfect alignment and circular orbits of both Earth and the object and that Earth and the object orbit in the same direction in the same plane, and defining a month as exactly 1/12 of a year the transits will occur every 1/5 of a year (73 days).

I will try to calculate transit length next...

irl people came up with the same answer. Thanks!

[KrazyHorse]

The tidal stresses on the object you are postulating are ridiculous.

[Lorizael]

I'm sure, but that's not the important part for my purposes.

[pchang]

orientation of the circle is important

[Lorizael]

So, it's not actually a circle. I found that when I attempted to explain the concept to my friends, they had absolutely no idea what I was trying to describe until I drew a picture in Paint. But I thought of an analogy that works rather well. If the Sun is an eyeball, my object is an opaque contact lens. Now, the lens isn't directly on the Sun's surface; it's far enough away so that it has a ~60 day orbit, and it's tidally locked so that the concave side is always facing the Sun.

So, along with wanting to know how long each "eclipse" would last from the perspective of the Earth, I also want to know how far away the object would have to be from the Sun to have a 60 day, roughly circular orbit.

[Kitschum]

In your book, have the hot but street-smart bisexual protagonist have lots of BDSM sex with all kinds, aliens included. It's a surefire recipe for success.

[Lorizael]

I also want to know how far away the object would have to be from the Sun to have a 60 day, roughly circular orbit.

I found a formula on Wikipedia and came up with an answer of 45 million kilometers. Is that anywhere close to being accurate?

[Lorizael]

In your book, have the hot but street-smart bisexual protagonist have lots of BDSM sex with all kinds, aliens included. It's a surefire recipe for success.

Book?