Astronomy lesson 3 - A view of the Universe

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group.
- Car Sagan, Cosmos

The professor has rolled out the ancient projector again. It has been turned on already, whirring quietly to itself in the middle of the classroom - no pictures are being projected onto the opposite wall so far, though.

Risu is busying himself at his desk, humming cheerfully. Perhaps it's the agreeable weather, perhaps the suspiciously cooperative projector, but he seems to be in a very good mood, sorting pictures and journal articles while waiting for the room to fill up with the students.

OOC: Lesson will begin in 30-45 minutes. Chatting allowed within reason. ^__^

Alex entered the classroom glancing around. She took a seat in her normal spot and pulled out a piece of parchment, a quill and her ink, it seemed they would be looking at pictures of something again. "Hello Professor, having a good day so far?" Alex asked kindly afterwards wondering what they would be doing this time in class.

Okay. This lesson, she WAS going to be paying attention. Since she was completely lost the last two lessons pretty much, Evelyn decided that it was time to sit in the front. That way she would HAVE to pay attention.

Sighing as she walked into the classroom, still finding it ridiculous that she had to climb a million stairs to get to the room in the first place, and scowling at the sight of Lufoy, Evelyn picked a seat riiight in the front. Yes!

"Good day Professor." she said quietly as usual before placing her head down on the desk. Tiiiiired.

Abby entered the Astronomy classroom with a bounce in her step. She hadn't felt this awake in a while. Although the gentle whirring of the projector inside might end up lulling her into a daze. Oh well. Best to sit up front and center then. She plopped down into a front row desk and politely greeted the professor with a cheerful wave.

Chris had slowly made his way up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower. Again the curiousity as to why they had to put it so high up in the Castle filled his head, but he told himself again that they needed to be close to the sky, duh! His breathing was only a little louder than usual, since he was used to the climbing now.

Walking into the classroom and smiling at the Professor, the Head Boy spoke. "Hello Professor, how are you today?" he said pleasnatly as he took a seat close to a window. He did like the view from here!

Selena walked into the classroom and smiled at the professor. "Hello Professor, how are you?" she greeted before she took a seat next to Alex. "Hello Alex," she said as she glanced around the room.

Gold loved, loved, loved this class. It was wonderful, the pursuit to unlock the secrets of the universe. It could - would - never fail to amaze her, she knew. Bangs swept to one side of her forehead, she stepped into the classroom, green eyes alight with quiet joy.

"Good day, Professor Antares," she said, politely.

Which was when she spotted Chris.

"Hey," she said softly, as she took a seat behind him, and lightly, pretty harmlessly, poked him in the back. She had a good view because of the window, from here. Excellent!

Iris walked into the Astronomy classroom and smiled towards the professor. Even though she didn't really like Astronomy, she decided that she was still going to go to the class. "Hullo Professor!" She said to him as she made her way to her seat.

And there was the first of his students! Risu, not interrupting his quiet humming, looking up from the desk, waved vaguely in the direction of all the empty chairs and desks (the early students were spoilt for choice there) before going back to his ordering and filing.

It took him another few seconds to finish stacking a number of journals, then he glanced up again. "I am, I am," he said with a smile. "Good afternoon, Miss Malfoy-Lupin. Have a seat, we will begin shortly."

Risu would have to get his desk in order soon. More students trickled in, their progress through the castle undoubtedly slower than usual. At the end of term, everyone shifted back a gear or two. The Tower was difficult to reach anyway.

And this one looked a bit tired. "Good day," he said, nodding cheerfully in the direction of the other students entering his classroom.

And here was the Head Boy. Risu had to admit to himself (when the 3am doubts crept in) that it was always nice to see the important students - or, rather, those deemed important by school rules and administrative decisions - in his classes. His subject, it was no secret, was difficult to understand (possibly because of Risu himself), and did by its nature not offer much in the way of wand-waving or potion-brewing.

"Hello, Mr Potter. I'm very well today, thank you." Risu nodded enthusiastically. "How are you?"

He raised his voice slightly to address the other students as well, the ones who were already there and those newcomers just joining the class. "Come in, come in. We will begin shortly. Did you all enjoy the Alumni Ball? I assume you had the opportunity to go."

Alex smiled at Selena, "Hey Sel." Alex repiled, so far there wasn't that many people.. and also noticed that Evelyn Flores was looking towards her, but Alex just ignored her, no need to start a fight after all.

Chris turned his head around with an eyebrow raised comically when he felt the poke on his back. "Who dare poketh me? Awesome!Gold I see?" he chuckled and then lifted his arm over his head and leaned back in his chair to poke her in the arm. "Hello!" he said grinning.
Chris had returned his gaze out the window where he was focussing on the tops of the trees in the Forbidden Forest, swaying in the wind. It was such a nice day out there, for sure he decided he was going out there after this lesson.

Then Professor Antares pulled him out of his thoughts. "Oh that's good to hear, I am also do quite well too, thanks!" he grinned brightly at the man. He knew the subject was hard, but when he liked the teacher he could put himself through tough lessons. Then upon asking how they liked the Alumni Ball Chris peeked back at Gold with a smile. "Oh it was wonderful Professor, it was a really good event to socialize with our current friends outside of lessons and then I got reconnected with my friends who have graduated recently. By far a great success." the gryffindor nodded.

"I am glad to hear you enjoyed yourself then, Mr Potter. And I hear exciting things are being planned for next term, too..." He interrupted himself as the second badged Gryffindor entered the classroom.

"Miss Laksh! Welcome. Have a seat, please," Risu said, but she'd already wandered off to join the Head Boy near the window. Good choice of seat, Risu thought to himself. Part of the price one had to pay to live in the highest point of the castle was the more noticeable weather. It was colder in winter and hotter in summer than in the rest of the school. Risu gladly put up with it, though. Stoves and short-sleeved shirts had been invented for a reason, after all.

"I'm good, thank you," Risu replied. "And how are you? Have a seat, please, we will begin momentarily."

"Hello, Miss Beaumont. Glad you could join us. Have a seat." Risu paused again, waiting for everyone to get settled before standing in front of the class.

"Welcome to this final Astronomy lesson, students," he said, spreading out his arms. "I assume most of you are looking forward to your summer holidays already, and with exams and the, er, exciting announcement made at the Alumni Ball, I am sure most of you have little patience and time to spare for my humble subject. We will not learn a lot of new things today, I think."

Risu began wandering up and down in front of his desk. "Barring any... accidents, I will return next term to teach again. And if I do, it will finally be time to really delve into the work of an astrophysicist. Most of this term's topics covered the basics, and as such might not have been very interesting, but they are an important foundation upon which further understanding of the Universe can be built."

He pulled out his wand. "And in this last lesson, I want to talk to you about the nature of understanding. Over the centuries, but, predictably, in particular in recent times, a startling amount of scientific progress has been made. Our picture of the cosmos began very simple," and now Risu flicked his wand, and the projector, with a mechanic stutter, flashed an image against the wall.



"The so-called Flammarion woodcut, a work of 19th-century art and science. It has been replaced, at least in the latter, by this."
With a second flick, the image changed.



"Anyone care to venture a guess as to what this is? Wild guess?"

Iris nodded at the professor as he greeted her too, and listened to him talk. She looked at the images that he showed them, and considered what he said.

She rose her hand "Uh... are they supposed to be what space looks like?" She said. He did say a wild guess... and considering that it was Astronomy, that was a logical answer.

Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to sit in the front. Not only was she now tired, and HAD to pay attention, she now as getting a headache from listening to something she completely did not understand.

"It's a...cloud?" she asked, knowing quite well that THAT was definitely not the answer. Purple cloud. With a beam looking thing flying through it. Ah well, at least it was pretty. Sorta.

Alex rose her hand hesistantly, "Is it a .. Solar Flare?" Alex asked confused she doubted it was but she had to guess after all

Chris lisented to the Professor with interest as he began to teach. It was a good thing he planned on coming back next term, because Chris liked him. Next he moved on and began to place the slides in the projector. The Head Boy stared at the last one for a second and then blinked a few times.

"Um Professor is it possible a star exploding, or pciture of another galaxy?" he said hopefully. Yeah it was kind of two guesses but oh well.

Risu nodded, impressed. "Not a bad guess at all. This is, in fact, what space looks like. Not to human eyes, but to the lenses of the particular observatory that assembled this picture."

"There are clouds in this picture as well," Risu said, nodding. "We will get to them in a moment."

Risu pointed at the next student. "Good guess, but no. This image is much larger than a single solar flare. Yes, Mr Potter?" He indicated the Head Boy, whose hand was also in the air.

"Not a star, no... Too small for this picture as well. Your second guess is closer to the mark, however." Risu waved an arm in the direction of the picture. It is a galaxy, but it's not just any. It's our own. This is the galactic disc, as seen from our vantage point, somewhere on the outer edges of one of the spiral arms. Thousands and thousands of light-years from the centre."

Risu leaned against his desk. "I am showing you this picture because it is such a huge contrast to the woodcut we saw a moment earlier. The ancient astronomer peering, if you will, through the sky - he or she..." Risu stopped, smiling slightly. "Well, in those days, most likely he... He was looking for this." He indicated the picture again.

"Once we start discussing the elements contained within this image, you will see how important it is. And," he added, "why." He pointed his wand at the wall the image was being projected onto. A dot of bright light appeared, indicating the area Risu wanted to focus on.

"But first, what do we see here? As I said, it's the galactic disc of the Milky Way. It's a horizontal line for us because we, of course, are a part of the disc. Miss Flores," Risu nodded in her direction, "mentioned one important part of it. The blueish clouds you can see stretching up and down from the main plane of the disc are," he indicated them with the flashing tip of his wand, "dust clouds. Does anyone know what these clouds are? And what's causing them to be flung away out of the plane like that?"

[edit]
OOC: Ugh, and I'm not feeling very well right now. I'll lie down for a bit and continue the lesson when I get back. Sorry. =[
Answers/discussion is certainly welcome, of course.

Erm...

Abby raised a hand. "The clouds are made up of gas and dust," she replied. "Inside, it contains the stars in our galaxy. And they're being flung around because of the energy of the stars." It was a bit of a guess. But it made sense to her.

Alex rose her hand and guessed, "Its a cloud of dust suspended in the air?" Alex doubted it but hey she would laugh it was true, but it sounded like it was so why not, best guess and gets possible points then not guess at all.

Vashti chewed her lip, thinking for a moment and trying to remember what little she learned about this sort of thing at Muggle school, but her memory was failing her a bit. Finally she raised her hand. "Could the clouds be flung away because of gravity? Like from the rotation of the stars and planets and stuff?"

Iris grinned to herself as he said Iris' guess was a good one. Her grin didn't last long though. When he started to discuss why they were important and such, Iris stared at him, completely confused at what he was saying.

She just sat there, trying to get her head around what he was saying.

Jay sat in his seat, unsure of what the answer was. He had never been particularly good at Astronomy, even though he did kind of find it interesting. That was a huge deal seeing as Jay barely liked anything to do with school. He listened as Vashti spoke. Dang, she's a smart kid. But then again, she is a Ravenclaw, so it's sort of expected, is it not?

He sighed, and kept his eyes focused on the pictures. Maybe the answer would just.. come to him. Thiiiiink Jay. Thiiiiiiiiiiink.

Chris raised his hand. They were learning a lot fo cool things in the lesson, plus the pictures were interesting. "Professor could the clouds be made up of space debris from meteors and comets? And wouldn't they be flung around like that because of the varying gravities given off by the planets and stars?"

Trixie, who was conveniently sat next to her boyfriend in her favourite lesson of them all listened to the professor, who had recently, teehee, changed her middle name to clumsiness after she kinda, well slipped into him. Then they had tea!! Yumm... Anyways back to the lesson. Huh what was the discussion about again?

Meep! Trixie didn't know the answer. What?! Nuuu! Flail moment. But Trixie loved Astronomy. Think you darn blonde! "I'd say it was mostly down to gravitational forces found in space or whatever you want to call it" she replied simply raising her hand. Was that good enough? Was that even the answer?

O_O

Fallon was so confused. This class seemed to do that to her sometimes. The work wasn't that bad and she usually understood what they were talking about by the end of the lesson, but still. She didn't like sitting in a class and being confused. It made them not fun. A few people answered and she had her purple quill ready to take notes. She was definately going to need them for this class.