"Harvs I think I found it. Bring your telescope over here." Minerva was looking into her own telescope when she realized that she was looking right what she thinks is Mercury.

Harvey rushed over with his telescope and pointed it roughly in the same direction as Minnie's telescope

"Where is it?" He asked her looking at her.

Mina pulled out her telescope and looked out at the horizon. She had never been too great at spotting planets and have the sinking feeling that this attempt would more than likely fail like all her other attempts.

Was that the moon she was seeing or was it really a planet?

Squinting her eyes, she tried to focus in on the body that was just near the horizon. No, she would get her hopes up that she found it just yet.

"Well Mercury is next to the sun. So if the sun rises to the east you need your telescope facing east. Then if you look through you find a small dot in the lower center of where the sun is located. You will have to hurry before the sun rises to much and the glare blinds us from seeing it."

Zhenya had never really attempted to learn how to find the different planets, but there was a first for everything! She pulled out her telescope and set it up infront of her. She looked through the night sky, trying to spot all the planets, and find mercury.

She knew what it looked like, and attempted to focus on that picture in her mind. THERE! She thought she saw it. It was quite smaller than the other planets in the solar system.

Harvey did as he was told and pointed his telescope east. He then looked through to see if he could find a small dot in the lower center. At first he didnt see it but when he really concentrated his sight in that area he saw a small dot.

"Yeah I think I see it" He then looked at Minnie "Thanks Minnie for helping me" He then looked through his telescope again to look at this small dot that was a planet called Mercury.

Selina listened to the Professor as he elaborated a little more on the whole planetary business. However, once he said for everyone to set up their telescopes and go Mercury hunting Selina had a field day. She walked briskly sprinted over to the cupboard to get a telescope before it got too crowded. Once she had it in hand she started to look over the room for a place to set up shop. As she moved across the room she saw the trouble making Ravenclaw speaking to Kurumi again this term. Selina bit her tongue to help herself from saying something, but one slip up and she was sure to let the 'Claw have it. But calmness was key... no need to resort to violence because then Kurumi would kill her.

So she minded her own business to a point and found a place to set up her telescope. As soon as it was positioned she took a look through it. Yep, that was the universe... what all of the dots meant she had no idea.

Okay...she was beyond lost. Kourtney had carefully set up her telescope (correctly, she hoped) and had peered through the eyepiece. Of course, she didn't really see much of anything as she wasn't entirely sure what she was looking for.

She tried to move the telescope from side to side slowly. Nothing but black. Hmm. She pulled back and looked over the telescope, reaching over to fiddle with the little knob. Peering back into the eyepiece, she could now see...some things.

Slowly tracking the telescope, she searched for Mercury. She thought she heard a few people say they had found it, but she was concentrating rather hard, so perhaps she was mistaken.

Left....right....wait...was that maybe it?

She peered closer and then pulled back, shaking her head in disappointment. No...just appeared to be a star.

Where was it? She leaned forward again, searching still.

Yes, all those planets were correct, of course. Treyen had not been expecting someone to say others either.

And now they were off to fetch a telescope if they didn't have one, or get their own all set. Well, he was about to set his own and search for Mercury when...his eyes found someone that was either having trouble with their telescope or the activity in general. He walked her way, with his Astronomy notes at hand. Just in case.

Hopefully, Sierra wouldn't mind. Right?

"If you don't mind me...," he started to say, as he placed a hand on her telescope and leaned it a bit more to the horizon than it was before, just NOT on the actual horizon, of course, "...it's either that one on the left, or the other one on the right," he said, after peering through it, eyes on her. "What do you think?" he could point both directions to her, most certainly.

But the telescope did need a bit more focus, though, he just didn't want to adjust it without permission.

Sierra was still positioned with her eyes up to the telescope when she felt the presence of someone else right behind her. When this person's hand came to rest on her telescope she backed away and discovered that it was Treyen who'd come to help. "Treyen," she said with a smile. Treyen. She'd always have a thing for Treyen Lockhart even if nothing would ever happen between them.

She shifted her gaze from him to the night sky. "Hmm..." She peered through the telescope again, studying the two directions he'd pointed out. "Is it the one on the left?" She pulled away from the telescope again and looked at him. Lightly laughing, she added, "I really don't know what I'm looking for..." It could be the one on the right, too, for all she knew.

Ira was happy now that it was time to be practical at last!
She took a telescope from the cupboard and proceeded towards the windows...She adjusted her telescopes and then focused it towards the skies...
She peered through the telescope trying to find Mercury first...It was nearest to the sun, so it must be where the sun was now...She focused near the sun and thought she saw a red colored body there. Maybe it was Mercury? Well, it looked like Mercury! She knew how it looked but the Mercury she observed appeared much smaller than she had previously thought, even through the telescope....

Getting up and heading to the cupboard, Michelle hauled a brass telescope towards one of the windows, sat down and opened her textbook.

So, looking for Mercury.. Flipping through her stargazer's book, looking for pages under anything Mercury... When she finally DID find something, she bit her lip..

"Umm, professor, don't we need the sun to look for Mercury? Like at sunrise?" she asked, because the little first year swore it was still the night sky outside..

Tiffany took out her telescope and tried to get familiar with this utensil as the professor was asking the students to try and look for Mercury.
She looked up and glanced at the sky. She remembered that Mercury is some kind of silver in colour. But all she could see was many sparkling stars.
"Where is Mercury?"she thought to herself. And at last she found one but she wasn't sure about that so she asked politely,"Professor,is that Mercury?That planet with silver in colour?"

Erin set up her telescope on a first free spot she saw. She doesn't want a partner. Relying on herself from this day on will pay her in the near future. She should know how to depend on herself alone. Help is not always there for her.

Mercury. The nearest planet on the sun. Well, she shouldn't know since there's no sun at night. There are only stars and moons and whoops...

'That was different..." said Erin as she saw a bright blue colored thing up there. She peeked again. "Professor, is Mercury's color blue?"

Orr set up her telescope and glanced up to the sky trying to adjust the setting so that she could see the stars and planets more clearly. Ah, there, she thought to herself as she could see relatively clearly. Now just to find Mercury.

She aimed her 'scope and all she could see was the moon and some of Mars. Opps she thought to herself, wrong direction.

Maybe she should ask for help as she glanced around the tower at the other students looking in their own telescopes.

These kids saying they've found Mercury, are they sure it is really Mercury? The sky is still night outside and the sun won't rise till five hours to come. Getting excited over nothing. How amusing! And do they heave to stay here till sunrise? Sighs.

Guided by the North Star, Aiden adjusts her telescope to the east, somewhere where the sun will rise. She leans at her desk and looks around at other students trying to find Mercury at this time of night. Might as well get a nap while waiting.

Penny was getting very frustrated now, and she still hadn't located Mercury..

Looking over at Alyssa, she said "I still can't see it, please help me", hoping her friend would assist her..... Penny knew that Alyssa had already located the planet for she, Penny, had hear Alyssa woop with joy...

Raven tried to see Mercury from her telescope. She just saw some stars and moon. Then she went a little to left. Then she saw a planet which is bigger than moon.

"Professor, is that Mercury? Which is silver and bigger than Moon?" she asked

Alexia got her telescope, adjusting it, and then began to look for the planet Mercury, minutes later she didn't find Mercury, since she was a little bit impatient she quickly search for a person who would accept her as a partner. she saw a girl who was quite having a hard time finding that planet, she zoomed to the girl, "Hi, is it okay if we could be partners? I was having a hard time looking for such a small planet" she said.

Finding WHAT?! Mercury?! But Ellie had no idea how to!

Err.. It should be near Venus, right? She thought as she focused her telescope on the night sky. All she could see was the moon. Stars. Oh, the Big Dipper!

Nope. Can't find anything! Feeling slightly ashamed of herself, she walked over towards the talking dictionary nice prefect person. She had a Japanese name... What was it again? Kiki? Kumumi? Ah, yes... Kurumi.

Telescope in hand, she asked the ohsonice senior prefect for help. "Err... K-k-kurumi-senp-p-pai... If you d-don't mind... C-c-could you show m-me how to find M-m-mercury? I can't really tell the d-d-difference between the st-st-stars..." she stuttered.

Hopefully the nice senior prefect person could show her how to do it right...

Orr nodded at the girl, "Sure. I'm Orr by the way."

"Thanks!". Lexia placed her telescope near Orr. "I'm Alexia, you could call me Lexia or whatever you want." she smiled.

"So, have you found Mercury yet?" she said while looking through her telescope.

As the student's began shuffling to set up their telescopes Edvard took a few minutes to study his lesson plan. Hearing murmurs of difficulties with finding Mercury and some student's who worked like detectives he decided to step in to maybe clear away the confusion.

"Mercury is the little silver, white and brownish planet that is only visible a little time before dawn and is very close to/ right next to the Sun. How long do you all think it is till dawn?" Edvard asked as he shot a look out of the window at the horizon where then sun should soon come up.

Remembering a comment that the lion prefect had made he added "It can also help if you look for Jupiter or Venus first and then go from one of them to find Mercury like Miss Hollingberry was just explaining..."

"But yes normally Mercury is only visible for a short while at dawn but this is a wizarding school is it not and here anything is possible with the help of magic, right?"

Taking up his wand Edvard said "To help you focus your magical telescopes i'm going to teach you a focus spell for the lens called lens focalis. The wand movement is a swish and then tap motion on the telescope."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spell

Name: Focus charm
Incantation: lens focalis
Wand movement: A swish and then a tap on the telescope.

Taking out a telescope from the cupboard he demonstrated the wand movement slowly, showing the swish and then tap on the telescope. "lens focalis!" he said firmly. Turning to adress the student's again he said "Practice the incantion first and then test it out on your telescopes. If you've done it right what you see in your telescopes should be more clear and sharp."

OCC: Practice the new focus charm on your telescopes and see if you can find Mercury now with the help of your telescopes and the information I've provided (at dawn it should be visible right next to the sun or you can do as sweetpinkpixie suggested and look for Jupiter or Venus first before locating Mercury).

Grabbing her wand from inside her robes, Thea began mouthing the incantation just to get used to it. Clearing her throat, Thea made a swishing movement with her wand. 'Lens focalis!' she said , then she tapped her telescope. Stowing her wand away, the Gryffindor pressed her eye to the telescope. Hm. Shrugging, she tried to hunt for Mercury. It was much better, she had to admit.

Focusing her telescope on Venus, lord only knows how she found it, Thea then moved aobut a bit as she tried to spot the funny coloured planet. Sighing, she straightened up. 'Well I spotted it for about a second..' She turned to Daichi, rubbing her eyes. 'But then I blinked.. and well.. it went downhill from there.'

It turned out that whatever she shad earlier spotted was not Mercury! Now Ira followed the professor's instructions and began to focus...Magic made everything so much easy, didn't it?
Ira then took out her wand from her robes and made a swishing movement and muttered "Lens Focalis" and tapped it on telescope. Then she peered through her eyepiece...trying to find Mercury. The sky looked much clearer now.