Astral positional notation
by Catspaw-DTP-Services
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Designs & Interfaces / Other©2012-2016 Catspaw-DTP-Services
A number of people independently arrived at a variety of similar notation schemes for the astral game board. Synthesizing some of the better ones, along with my own ideas of how to do things, yielded this result. Since not everyone plays chess, and therefore would be familiar with the concept of positional notation, here’s a quick explanation.

Positional notation is a means of assigning coordinates to cells or points on a game board. In the case of Sun and Moon—The Astral Game, this is accomplished by using two axes: the hours and spheres.

Hours are the arcs following the curves of the twilight line that divides the board in half, rotating around the board like the hands of a clock. The red inner twilight line is labeled s0 (for “sun”); the blue inner twilight line is labeled m0 (for “moon”). Numbering progresses clockwise with each arc, ending with s5 and m5. (Keep in mind, by the way, that the arcs curving in the opposite direction are not used in the coordinate system.)

Spheres—named for the archaic concept of “celestial spheres”—are the concentric circles centered on the earth. They are lettered, starting at A for the innermost circle and progressing outward to F for the outer twilight line.

The order of notation is hour first, then sphere. There’s no reason to prefer one order over the other, other than the minor convenience that a number sits between two letters.

Heavenly bodies, on the other hand, use a different notation: the first letter of the body’s name, surrounded by hyphens or en-dashes. Thus, the sun can be noted as -s- or –s–, the moon as -m- or –m–, and the earth as -e- or –e–.

(I apologize for the bizarre category, but Deviantart steadfastly ignores the existence of any game other than digital games.)