Gold Sun and Red Sun

The Gold Sun and Red Sun are the close binary stars orbited by Uclea. The larger yellow-white primary supplies most visible light; the smaller red dwarf crosses in front of it every thirty sols as seen from the planet, creating the cycle used by the solar calendar and Krasnarusian solar religion.

Astronomy

The observed thirty-sol cycle is synodic. The stars themselves orbit one another in about 27.69 sols while Uclea completes a 360-sol circumbinary orbit. A working model gives the pair a combined mass near 1.30 solar masses and an average separation of about 0.18 astronomical units.

Overlap and Veiling

Every solar cycle begins at foreground conjunction, or Overlap, when the Red Sun appears as a dark copper blemish on the Gold. Around Sol 16 it passes behind the primary and disappears in Veiling. These conjunctions are regular enough to divide the year into twelve equal solths.

Political symbolism

Older Mattrozhian folklore casts the Red Sun as the Little One: the younger sibling, poor traveller or overlooked worker who survives beside a greater ruler. Krasnarusian socialists reinterpret the Gold as inherited power and the Red as labour. Overlap becomes revolution; Veiling becomes repression.