Emily raised her hand enthusiastically. She loved stars...
pretty.... shiny.....FOCUS!

... Right constellations, "Professor a constellation is a grouping of stars which have been created by muggles, these groupings have been created for a number of reasons such as scientific, navigation and of course aesthetics. An example of navigatory constellations includes Crux, also known as the southern cross which can be seen in the southern hemisphere, its... basically a cross."

Chloe found it rather intriguing that the arithmancy teacher is now teaching Astronomy as well. First it was the flying professor teaching Herbology and now this. Chloe was starting to wonder what was going on for the sudden lack of professors at Hogwarts. But the ones still here's were trying some Chloe figured she would put her best foot foward as well. "A constellation is a group of stars that are pulled together into certain shapes by gravity. Muggles gave these arrangements special names and in general call then constellations", Chloe suggested with her hand raised high.

Before students could answer her about constellations, it seemed that there was a more pressing question on the mind of Kurumi. One that she honestly wasn't to sure she could answer correctly; yes she did well in the class, but she did understand its connection to the wizarding world? Not fully. At least not at that time she didn't. "It does seem a bit mundane, this work, doesn't it?" Hadley replied back with a question. "But I suppose one of the reasons we as wizardkind study Astronomy is in part due to the fact that the study of planets' motions provides a theoretical base for learning astrological divination. However, some Astrological topics such as the physical characteristics of Jupiter's moon or using a telescope, have little to do with fortune telling. Perhaps though, Miss Hollinberry, if you consider the original meaning of the word wizard, which means wise one, then the answer may lie there. Because in order to be a wizard, one is expected to have mastered more than just the magical arts, but knowledge of the natural world as well. For instance, isn't Herbology just simply botany? Or Potions just a fancy wizarding way of saying Chemistry? Studying cosmos in Astronomy is quite similar, wouldn't you agree?"

Yup... She was definitely going to need that water. Perhaps it was the height in the tower as well that was making her more thirsty than usual. "Yes, correct. And good point that there are 88 constellations, but it should also be noted that not all can be seen in the sky at the same moments in time."

"Yes ... this too is one of the reasons we study Astronomy. It is more just so we can be well-rounded and knowledge individuals. So we can know and truly be considered wizards, to live up to our namesake." Hadley nodded at Dakest. Wasn't that enough for a class?


Josephina nodded at the Gryffindor captain; "Very good. Yes, precisely that."

"You could say that... Pictures in the sky. One way of putting it for sure," Hadley nodded. It wasn't wrong, per say, at least.

Professor Hadley nodded at the Gryffindor. "Quite right... They do vary slightly depending on not only WHERE you are standing, but also the time you're viewing in both hourly time and monthly."

But that however, was very wrong, Miss Destiny. Perhaps you should learn from your friend and just stick to simple explanations like pictures and stuff. "No." She said, as she came along and smacked her hand loudly on Destiny's desk. "Wake up, Miss Shepard. Alphabets and vowels have to do with Arithmancy, not Astronomy. And I believe the word you were looking for is consonant."


Good. They knew what constellations were. "So we've got 88 constellations, as Miss Hollinberry has informed us. Certain ones, as I've previously alluded to, only come out at certain times of years. Being that it's April ... Or Spring, can anyone enlighten me on some of the constellations that we might find in the sky at this time?"


ooc: please only list ONE to give everyone a chance to participate =)

"One is Leo, the lion," Kurumi said with her hand raised high in the air.

"Well, you will find a huge bear looking concellation in the sky call ursa major and when ursa major, managed to spot it last night", Chloe replied raising her hand high with a grin

Oooh they got to name them? With his quill read he prepared to write them all down. Maybe he would have time to look for a few of them, that is if he wasn't crammed down with homework. "Professor one of them would be Scorpius, the one shaped like a scorpian." he nodded after raising his hand.

Professor Hadley wasn't to shabby at this Astronomy stuff so far, she at least hadn't given up and ran back down the stairs to let the children fend for themselves. That was a plus.

Caroline grinned and raised her hand, "Chamaeleon the constellation is supposed to represent the famous color-changing lizard of the same name." Was one of the constellations that she knew

Simon tried to remember stuff in had learned in previous lessons or readings. Sure he could name them but which ones would be visible now? "Well there is also the hydra," he answered after raising a hand having finally remembered a few he could think of that existed during the warmer half of the year and Kurumi had answered the most obvious one connected to their house in some way.

Sabel nodded at Hadley's explanation. That was better than his own, and very insightful. Too often he himself got caught up in thinking that the classes were simply for learning magic, not for learning in the name of learning. "Lynx is a constelation that appears in the Northern Hemisphere in spring."

Ohhh, constellations. Vashti knew about these! "Cancer, the crab, can be seen in the spring," she answered with a hand in the air.

Constellations in the sky now? She knew some, but didn't know if they would be there now! K-Lee put her hand up to ask a question.

"Not to sound silly, but how come some constellations are only seen certain times of the year?" She felt stupid asking this, but she never had understood space much. She had a lot of trouble in Astronomy.

They were naming the pictures!

Well, she pretty much only knew a few, and half of them were already said. Good Merlin! Could all these people read her mind? Just as she was going to raise her hand and say one, someone blurts it out! Whoever said Hydra...ehhhhhhhh. "Hercules!" she said quickly, raising her hand before anyone else could mention it. MWAHA! "...is one."

Might as well finish her sentence.

WAH!!

Sweet Merlin! Who would have thought Professor Hadley could be so..mean! Destiny didn't think there was any reason to come and scare the Bertie Bott's out of her. She even made her drop her quill. Picking up her quill from the floor, she refrained from telling the Professor that she was awake. Her eyes were open and everything!

She also refrained from telling her that she was confused since she was used to her teaching Arithmancy instead of Astronomy, so her consonants and constellations got mixed up.

But that would be a lie and Destiny doesn't lie.

"So I guess that means I can't say the letter 'D' is a constellation?" No? Fine. Opening her textbook, she found the page about constellations and..what do you know? The letter D was not a constellation. And since the book said other things, she raised her hand. "There is the Crater. Or a cup."

She'd rather say the letter 'D'.

Charley thought a while, then raised her hand.
"Leo is one of the April constellations, isn't it?"

Maybelle raised her hand, "Well, there is Leo...." She paused for a moment, "Leo Minor, I mean. This constellation crosses the Meridian at nine P.M. on April 10th. It's Genitive is Leonis Minoris. And Leo Minor is the only northern constellation without an alpha star." Maybelle said, sounding full of knowledge. She liked sounding smart, it made her feel special.

"Most certainly," Josephina agreed, flicking her wand at the board as the chalk magically wrote 'Leo' on the board.

And 'Ursa Major' right below that. "Yes very good. But this one isn't specific to only Spring, I should note. Yet you should definitely see this one out there. "

"Scorpius is actually seen more in the Summer months," Hadley said, shaking her head at Riley.

Hadley stared at the girl. Gibberish she was speaking. "But not really a Springtime one..."

ooc: please DO NOT edit your posts, but post again if you happen to "miss a new question". You will not receive credit for edited posts. And believe me, I played quidditch and was a captain, so I KNOW when you guys edit. Be fair to yourselves and your classmates and just don't edit.


"Yup... Hydra could most certainly be seen during the Springtime months... Perhaps even tonight ... or before school is out you'll get the chance to see this exceptionally long and brilliant constellation." Hadley nodded at the Gryffindor, but all the students.

"I suppose so, but not many will be able to see the Lynx constellation as it is a very faint one... set rather low in the sky." Hadley explained, at first not even sure that this was one in this time of year. Because she herself had never seen this particular arrangement...

"That would be correct," Hadley agreed, having nothing new to really about the Cancer one. At least not off the top of her head; it was in their textbooks if they wanted to read about it.

Good question actually... And one that she had to flip through her own textbook for some sort of reasonable explanation about this. "Just give me a moment..." Hadley said quietly, as she flipped quickly through her text.

"Aha! Not a silly question at all, but the reason some constellations are seen only certain times of year is due mostly because of the rotation of the Earth and its orbit around the sun. Some constellations never rise nor set, and they are called circumpolar. The rest are divided into seasonal constellations, which are the ones that will be seen only certain times of year. The constellations which can be seen all the time, versus those only seasonally, depends a lot on your location on Earth." Hadley paused, thinking about this. "For instance, during my time in South Africa, the constellations in the sky were very different from those seen in England." Hopefully that made some bit of sense?


"Also seen more in the Summer months... At least in regards to the northern hemisphere constellations, which as we're in the northern hemisphere, that's we'll be looking at." Because you know, down in South Africa, they'd be looking at the Southern ones... heh. "But wait ... no it might seen in the Spring months too." Probably dependent on the whole positioning and location thing.

Oh Destiny. What would Hogwarts do without you?

Professor Hadley fought back a smile as the girl dropped her quill from the sudden approach of herself. Really, Hadley knew that Destiny was not dimwitted, so why must she insist on acting like it? Or at the very least being silly?

No ... The letter D was not a constellation, nor was Destiny, while you're at it. "Oh good, see what happens when you read your book. Crater is indeed a constellation found in the Springtime."


"Yes ... Miss Hollingberry said that one already, but Leo is most certainly one of the constellations in Spring." Hadley nodded.

"Bootes and Virgo are others not mentioned," Hadley rattled off, "but then of course there's the circumpolar ones such as Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Draco, and Ursa Minor."

Hmm ... what else can she tell them? You know, before she set them off to work... "Before you can begin your assignment, which will be looking for constellations in the sky, we need one main piece of equipment that will be vital to accurate observations. What equipment is this?"

Boots? Hehe, a pair of boots in the sky.

...

Wait...no. Glancing through her book, which she just happened to get out on her desk- OMG! Her book was on her desk!? When did that happen?

Raising a brow, Evelyn flipped through the pages for a moment, before closing it. What in Merlin's Beard? Glancing down to her back however, she noticed that it hadn't even moved since she sat down. Who's book was this? More importantly...how did it get on her desk!? Pfffft. "Telescopes." she said, raising her hand yet keeping her gaze on the book. More then likely, yush, it was those things.

Meh? Or were they called telephones...

Jaina already had hers out and was ready to use it. "A telescope!" Jaina said excitedly as she raised her hand.

Yes, see what happens when you read a textbook?

The person next to you steals it. Destiny glaaaared at Evelyn and was tempted to rip the book right back off of her. But, before she could, her book stealing best friend started to flip through the pages and really, Destiny was still too tired from her hike up the steps to bother taking it back. "Don't write it it."

Because, you know, that was her job.

And now that she didn't have her book, she had no idea what it was that helped them see the constellations. Just kidding, she knew the answer.

"You need your eyes."

"Telescope!!" Nika bounced out of her seat.

"Exactly!! A telescope is correct and one of the most vital pieces of equipment to Astronomy!" Hadley exclaimed as she approached the cabinet which held all the school telescopes. "But see there's ..."

... a problem?

What was that, Destiny? Well obviously you need your eyes, but that wasn't equipment really, was it?

"True, your eyes are important for observation, but not like the telescope."


Now after that lovely interruption... where was she? Right... "There's a problem however. Due to the months of not being used, the telescopes have become very dusty... And basically unfit for observing." Sniffle, sniffle. "So that is why during today's lesson, we're going to learning proper maintenance and cleaning techniques for the telescopes!" Yay!

"I'd like to start by everyone going over to the cabinet and selecting one telescope. And while you're selecting the telescope, please meet me at the back of the classroom at the large work table. You won't need your textbooks for this part of the lesson... " With that, she took her own dirty telescope and made her way back to the work table and waited for some students to join her.

Emily walked over to the cabinet and selected one of the old telescopes, it was covered in dust and grime. Picking it up gingerly Emily lugged it over to the tables that Professor Hadley had indicated and placed it down on the surface.

Maintenance.... fun.

Don't write in it? Meh? Glancing over to Destiny, the Slytherin girl staaaaaared for a moment or...five...before looking back to the book. Hmmm. Random words written in it, crinkled edges on the pages, dusty....OMG!

"Oh, sorry." she muttered, placing the book back in front of Destiny. Huuuuh, she could've sworn she had not...done anything. Like taking her friend's book. Whateveeer though. And she could've SWORN the professor said NOTHING about cleaning! Which, she didn't really, but it was all suggested! Nuuuuu! "But whyyyy?" she whined quietly, dramatically standing up and making her way over to the dirty telescopes.

Couldn't the professor just make it clean with a swish of her wand or something? Why did THEY have to clean them?!

Grabbing one of the telescopes that looked as if it would be the most clean and usable out of them all, Evelyn scowled and made her way over to the back tables, placing her telescope quickly on the top and...and where was she supposed to wipe her hands?

Hehe, see!? She WAS right!

It didn't even matter that Professor Hadley said eyes were not as important as the telescope. Destiny wouldn't say anything, but she thought otherwise. She thought eyes were the MOST important. Without them, how would you be able to look into the telescope? How would you even know what you were trying to look into was really a telescope and not one of those paper towel tubes!?

Who would have thought Astronomy would make Destiny think so much?

Shrugging at all her mental questions, she gave a nod towards the Professor before noticing the whole lot of staring going on from Evelyn. Yeah, she was sorry for stealing her book. And she better be! Book thief.

Pushing herself out of the desk, Destiny dragged her still VERY tired feet over to the cabinet and picking out a telescope, she dragged her feet over to stand RIGHT next to the Professor.

What a suck up.

Luin quickly wrote down everything they had talked about in the lesson so far, about constellations, why they were studying astronomy, the kinds seen now, etc. She then watched as the professor got up and went to the back of the classroom with her telescope. She then got up and selected a decent-looking telescope. It was a bit dusty, but seemed undamaged. She then walked to the back work table with the professor.