*looks at Mithos and smiles*

"I've been around, you know, meeting new people. Yeah know. Anyways, hows it been, I hope it begins soon. I've been good if you wanted to know.

*turns to my note book and begins to doddle with my quill*

Francis smiles as she takes her seat quietly. She smiles at the Professor, happy to be back.

"I wonder what we will be doing first" she said to Mithos

*Alicia looks over at the girl who just came in saw from the smile that she too was glad to be back. alicia leans over to her whispers "I love astronomy dont you? Its nice to study something thats so...well not earth bound. Ya know what i mean? Studying the heavens"

::comes into the classroom takes an empty and sits dwon and then waits for class to start::

:: Ganymede sat drumming her fingers on her desk. She gives a quick smile at Nadia then rolls her eyes. Ganymede sighs and takes some parchment out becoming impatient. I hate waiting she thinks. ::

*alicia starts humming quietly to herself as she gazes out the windows at the endless starry sky noticing that the stars always seemed brighter in the winter*

Jessica looked around the room and smiled at the others in the room. A few she had seen in her own common room before but others were new to her. She smiled at a Gryffindor girl and then turned back to Hayley. "So do you like astronomy?" She asked curiously.

Hello and welcome to Astronomy! I hope that you will all enjoy class and have as much fun as possible. I do have a few rules though...

1. Please respect the other members of the class and their opinions at all times.
2. Answer questions even if you are not sure of tha answer, you never know, you might earn some points.
3. Have fun!

And probably most important of all... is the lolly cabinet!

*Professor Dainsie walks over and opens several compartments on the front of her desk*

This is packed with Honeydukes lollies. Due to the unfortunate attacks on Hogsmeade I think they will be harder for you to aquire, so please help yourself to these during lessons or whenever you visit the classroom!

So welcome back to those of you I know, and a new welcome to those I don't. Hopefully we will remedy that over the school year. Thankyou for your words of welcome! Yes my summer was rather good! Despite the fact that I've had to go 7 months without my favourite show *mumbles angrily* Anyways, so Astronomy...

This year we will be continuing on from where we left last year. For those who weren't here, we studied the planets of the solar system, all except earth, which is where we will be picking up next lesson. This lesson is just really an introduction.

Now, just what is Astronomy?

Shannon raises her hand. "Astronomy is the study of celestial bodies and the universe as a whole."

Francis raises her hand, "Astronomy is the scientific study of matter in outer space, especially the positions, dimensions, distribution, motion, composition, energy, and evolution of celestial bodies and phenomena."

She also grabs a lollie and places it near her quill. She wants to eat it later on the class.

Serena grabbed a strawberry lolly and then sat back down.
She raised her hand and added,
"Astronomy is a system of knowledge or beliefs about celestial phenomena and their are various astronomies described by ancient civilizations.
The Bible is actually one source. The constellations are distinguished and named like the morning star, the seven stars, Pleiades, Orion, Arcturus, the Great Bear, the crooked serpent, Draco, the Dioscuri, or Gemini, Castor and Pollux. Stars are also referred to as "the host of heaven".
Divisions of time were based on the observation of the movements of the heavenly bodies and led to dividing years into months. The zodiac, named by the Greeks, came from the mapping out of the stars appearances divided into twelve portions.
Astronomical observations were necessary in history to set, or keep the right time for sacred ceremonies."

RJ shifted on his seat, feeling a little bit uncomfortable. He looked at his seat and discovered that he was seating on his book. He made a rather embarassed expression on his face, as the professor asked a question. Placing down his book on his desk, he raised his hand and answered, "Astronomy studies the outer space or the universe and the celestial bodies that are located outside the Earth. It talks about constellations, stars, planets, etc."

Lesley walks in the class room and take a seat by the glass wall and takes her books out hoping that she is not late.

*grabs a lolly and raises her hand* Astronomy is the scientific study of matter in outer space, especially the positions, dimensions, distribution, motion, composition, energy, and evolution of celestial bodies and phenomena.

Jacallia walks in and quickly takes a seat. She hates being new, she can't find anything. She hopes she is not too late though.

Meghan smiles at Jacallia and turnes back to her notes.

Rosa sits down and waves her hand up in the air. then she says: 'it comes from the greec words astros, star, and logos, word. I think it's giving stars names and stuff and studying their movements. people on sea navigate using the stars.' she wonders if she made a complete fool of herself or only a half one and quickly opens her astrology book and hides behind it.

::Erica supressed a scream and, with as much composure as she could muster, stood up and grabbed a lolly. She then made her way back to her seat. She pulled out some parchment and a quill, unwrapped her lolly and stuck it in her mouth. Mmmmmm.....pure bliss. She was liking Astronomy already.::

Nadia helped herself with some lollypop and it was having it stuffed in her mouth that stopped her from responding earlier.

"It is the study of the celestial bodies and everything from the earth out =P It includes the study of the planets, from the interior and exterior both, and the composition of space with as much knowledge as we can get. It is finding explanations and describing the outherspace. Astro means star, -nomy (from L. -nomi) is for refering to 'theory'. English astronomie, from Old French, from Latin astronomia, from Greek astronomi."

Nadia heard wizcat and adds, "I beg to differ. You see, Astro+logos would make Astrology, not Astronomy. Those are quite differnt. Though by the sound of it the first name dos applies in this case, logos does means 'word' and 'thought' and 'expression'. Complicate word, isn't it?" She shook her head. "Sorry, drifted away."

Looks at Nadia with eyes wide and stuff a lolly in her mouth and writes that down.

*quickly takes a seat and pulls out parchment and quill ready to take down anything of use*

*raises hand* Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial bodies, phenomena and all realms of outer space

*Alicia also helps herself to a lolliepop and whispers to Nadia "good answer!" then raises her hand and says "Astronomy is the study of the universe and the objects in it. Astronomers use telescopes that gatherinvisible light and invisible forms of energy to veiw the sky. they investigatenearby bodies such as the sun, planets, comets,as well as far off galaxies. They aslo study the structure of spaceand past and future of the universe"

Mithos raises his hand *clears throat*

"Astronomy.. the brach of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole. It is also defined as star-gazing. In Astronomy there are included astrochemics, astrograpohy, astrolithology, astrology, astrometry, astrophysics, slenology and uranology."

Jacallia leans over a littla and asks Meghan.

"Did you know any of this??"