Todelmer is an Age written for astronomy. It is made up of telescopes, mechanisms, controls and various types of room set on gigantic stone spires that tower over the surface of the world. The world of todelmer is a moon of a ringed planet that I suspect may be reziksev, but that is speculation with no proof. The atmosphere over Todelmer seems to be exceptionally clear and little if any distortion is imparted to the images seen through its telescopes.

The word "todelmer" means "observatory". Literally, it translates as "place-star-watch".

The world below the spires is made up of rivers winding through green ground cover that seems to be a distant, endless forest. It's dotted with large meteor impact craters. Seen from space, the ground cover makes the entire moon appear to be colored green.

Todelmer, as seen from a great distance.

This is the inside of one of the craters.

This was taken from the same crater, looking up at the observatory.

Here is another look at the central spire from less of a distance. The cables are used to adjust the four large telescopes that were used for deep space imaging.

The main control room:

The primary control room of the observatory. This is set in the bottom of a shaft that leads all the way up to the top of the spire.

The mechanisms that look a little like mushrooms are the four control stations for the large telescopes. They have levers that control the orientation of the scopes, and each station covers one quarter of the visible sky over Todelmer.

This is one of the stations, for the southeast sector of the sky. The large, dark circle is the telescope image display, which is turned off because the observatory is unpowered. The sliding knobs are the altitude and azimuth controls.

Here is a closer look at the telescope control panel.

The observatory:

At the top of the main spire are two main buildings and the cable system for the telescopes. In this picture, you can see a small telescope that would have been used for near space observations or for spotting. The mechanism to the left, on the smaller spire, is one of the large telescopes.

The two domes on the spire top. The smaller one is a cable room where the control cables for the telescopes were routed down to the control room machinery. The larger dome covers the top of the shaft that the control room sits in the bottom of.

Inside the large dome is this device, which appears to be a planetarium projector. There are two such devices placed around the observatory, one here and another in a similar dome on another spire.

This is the dome on the other spire that has a planetarium projector. There is a small telescope on this spire just like the one on the main spire.

This is the inside of the shaft in the main spire. You can see two of the telescope control stations at the bottom, and some of the control cables.

This car rides a cable system to get to the other spire with a planetarium and small telescope.

This is a closer look at one of the four large telescopes. There seem to be two light gathering tubes surrounded by other instruments, so they may be capable of gathering information by several means, instead of just normal light. The images are transmitted back to the control room, so the telescopes are unmanned.

Here's one of the two small telescopes. Its clever design allows the light gathering end to move independently of the viewing lens. An observer would be able to stand and look through it without any need to adjust his position as the telescope moved.

Wildlife:

Animal life is almost nonexistent on Todelmer, but "almost" is the word. One of the many varieties of firefly can be found here and there in the Age. They have similar behavior to the fireflies in the D'ni cavern, being attracted to light sources. While the fireflies in the cavern tend to give off a golden glow, these are a bright green.

Plant life:

Other than the forests on the surface, there is a sparse grass that grows on the spires. Here's a picture looking down at the forest from above.

The grass.

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