Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

"Hello and welcome to Astronomy! I am Airey Flamsteed and will be your professor this term." And hopefully future terms assuming the post wasn't cursed. "You may call me Professor Flamsteed or Professor Airey, whichever you prefer. Just a bit about me before we begin, and you should probably start taking notes. You will find a pull out desk surface on the right of your seat." He waited a moment to allow them all to do just that. "I was once a Hogwarts student myself, a Gryffindor in fact, and before coming to Hogwarts I worked at the mission operations directorate of NASA in Houston, Texas in America. I enjoy suits, science fiction, and... " He paused for a moment to add emphasis on what he was about to say next. There WAS a reason to his madness. We promise. "...singing." Pausing again, Airey jumped off the platform and began to walk around the circular area to make. "I know that standard procedure is to go over the definition of what astronomy is, but I trust you all to have already read about that in your textbook and if you have not, well, then please do so after class." He didn't want to waste any time on trivial things like that. Unless students were getting this noble subject mixed up with that rubbish that was Astrology. THEN there would be issues and THEN they would go over definitions.

But! Back to singing.

"Singing has been a favorite past time of mine since I was a Hogwarts student. Singing sad songs often has a way of healing. Happy songs help you channel your positive energies. Best of all is that anyone can sing, perhaps not well, but anyone can do it and there is a song for every situation." And he jumped back up on to the platform. "There are even songs that relate to Astronomy. Both directly and somewhat indirectly. Take for example the muggle childhood classic Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." He paused to clear his throat before singing the first two verses.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. "

Applause, yes?

"We see from these lyrics several connections to astronomy. The more obvious connection is the use of star. It is also connected in that it shows man's curiosity of the cosmos and even gives a little bit of scientific explanation as to when most stars are visible in the sky. Most because there was a very VERY big star, our sun, that is most visible during the day because the Earth is rotating around it. When our part of Earth faces it, the sun's blue light - the same light that makes the sky blue, mind you - is so bright that it makes all other stars appear to vanish. BUT ANYWAY! I want you all to take a moment to think about what songs you know that you think have a connection to astronomy. Muggle and wizarding music, it doesn't matter. No connection is too small! Please only share one song please. No need to go into too much detail as to why it connects to astronomy. You may sing a few verses as well if you wish. " In fact, he highly encouraged it. "Oh, and if you could please say your name before you answer I would appreciate it."

And for those students who were probably rolling their eyes at this exercise, the was a point to be made! A very valid point in fact. Yep.

OOC: this lesson has officially begun! Please do NOT post your student arriving after this post or else risk losing points for your house. Please just pretend as though you have been here all along!

You can use a real song or make one up! Try not to repeat the same answer as someone else and be creative! There is no right or wrong answer to this question This lesson will hopefully continue tomorrow around noon GMT+9.

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Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

"Very good all of you and thank you for being brave and singing." Most of them anyway and it hadn't been a requirement to sing. They had humored him though, which he appreciated. Awesome points to them all! "However, none of managed to mention the song that inspired this lesson." Shame really. There had been house points up as a reward for anyone that did."Are any of you familiar with the song Catch a Falling Star performed by Perry Como?" With a quick tap of his wand on the projector, lyrics written in bold white text appeared on the domed ceiling over the night sky for students to read. "As you may have been able to infer from all this, the theme of this term is stars and today we will be focusing on something rather special. A star that isn't really a star but has been mislabeled as one by humans. Often called shooting stars or falling stars like in the song, there is a proper name for this phenomena. Can anyone tell me what that is?"

OOC: it is alright to repeat answers here. Your student character doesn't have to answer either if IC it would make more sense for them not to know which Airey is talking about. Points are not awarded for correct answers only This lesson will continue in hopefully 15 hours.

Catch up posts are allowed if you missed a question, but PLEASE put it under a spoiler tag or else you will not receive credit for your efforts.

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