The Route To Sirius

[ffutures]

In The Struggle for Empire the war between the Anglo-Saxon Empire and Sirius begins with Earth's fleets slowly making their way out to Neptune, along the plane of the ecliptic, resupplying there, then setting course for Sirius.

But Sirius is the Pole Star; the most direct route is directly "up" from the plane of the ecliptic. While I doubt that the author ever thought of it in these terms, I need an explanation as to why this long detour is needed.

The only obvious answer is that something constrains ships to this plane; since this is a universe that has "Ether" and several new types of energy found only in the depths of space I'm tempted to visualise it in terms of convex "discs" of destructive energy above and below the plane of the ecliptic, at their thickest and most dangerous in the inner system, gradually getting thinner and less obstructive as you get further out, until it's safe to head "up"

Any suggestions / alternatives?

OK, I'm an idiot - blame lack of sleep. I mixed up Polaris and Sirius! I just need a reason for ships to be much slower from Earth to Neptune than from Neptune on out, and that's easily justified via Ether currents or something.

Comments

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Sirius is the Pole Star?

I think you mean Polaris. Sirius is in Canis Major, whereas Polaris is in Ursa Minor, and the heliacal rising of Sirius heralded the flooding of the Nile in Egypt and the Dog Days in ancient Greece, it says here. Pole Stars don't rise, heliacally or otherwise.

So unless your earth has a different axial tilt, I think you're all right sending your ships to Sirius.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

What he said.

Sirius has a declination of 16 degrees, so it's pretty close to the ecliptic.

(And really, since Sirius is 8.6 light years away, the detour of going to Neptune first, no matter what direction it's in, is kinda like the amount of a detour that leaving your driveway puts in a ten thousand mile trip, if it isn't pointing in exactly the direction you want to go.)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Not sure why I mixed up Polaris and Sirius, I blame lack of sleep. The thing that was bugging me was the time it took, a month or two.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Oh FFS - what the hell made me think it was the pole star? Thanks!