Tayla had a huge grin on her face. She was so happy they had both found a couple constellations and seen a double star. She enjoyed seeing Sophie excited, too, and was glad they decided to stargaze together.

"Thanks for coming up here with me," Tayla began, realizing she probably hadn't thanked her new friend yet. "It would have been less fun being up here alone."

Tayla stifled a yawn. "I'm getting really sleepy. You mind if we go back to our common rooms now?"

Donald duck? "what's a donald duck?" Daichi blinked as he asked the question. He had no idea what she was talking about. But he did smile a little when she told him to set down his equipment and he did so , on the table besides her stuff.

Daichi watched as she suddenly began to laugh but he didn't get what she was laughing at so he remained quiet. "I never joke about ducks..." he said, sounding VERY seriously and then he gaaaasped!

"Dont...don't want to pose as a duck!?!" he shouted, harder than he had wanted as he flailed his arms up and down. "I'll pretend i haven't heard that"
she is crazy!

Oh ..introductions... He stopped flailing his arms and bowed a little. "Ehm..nice to meet you Louisa i'm Daichi" ...wait..how did she know he liked ducks? Did he have a stalker?! awesome.

Still amazed at the thought of having a possible stalker, Daichi shook his head and started to listen to the older Ravenclaw as she began to speak about the assignment. The Slytherin stared at her, mouth slightly open and when she was finished he said "Gnomon is a funny word" and giggled.

But all weird words aside, Daichi took his own sundial and tried to mimick hers by moving the arrow to the right place. "So the shadow is for reading the time..right?" he asked because he had no clue on what he was doing.

" Can't we just look at our watches and write the time BUT make it five minutes earlier so it isn't suspicious?" he would have....

Astronomy HW Post 3
 

Ella headed back to the observatory, holding the sundial carefully. It was rather chilly out but the sun was shining brightly and she thought it would be a good time to try the sundial out. She smiled, taking out her notebook and looking at her nocturnal notes. She had been right on target the previous night when she determined it was 8:00pm and she hoped to be able to tell the time of day now as well.

Looking down at her sundial notes, Ella made sure to first ensure her sundial was pointing north and that it was set down on a flat surface. She adjusted it a bit and with a nod, looked back down to her notes. "Alrighty, what's next?" Well apparently Ella had to make sure that her gnomon-or little shadow caster thingy-majig as Ella liked to call it-was adjusted to the correct latitude. She frowned, adjusting it slightly and hoping it was correct. She rubbed her hands together for warmth and looked up at the sky for a minute. Feeling the sun hot on her face, she smiled. "Alright, enough of a break...back to my homework." Ella looked down at her notes and read what she needed to do next.

AStronomy HW post #1
 

After picking up the nocturnal from the outside of Professor Roslund's office Angelina headed over to the observatory. She decided she get up very early to do this homework assignment and see the sun rise. Luckily it was a pretty clear day out and had something's pack with her for her morning stay. Her plane was to use the sun dial to find out the time of day what you could see the sun being to rise. After she would go get some breakfast from the great hall, do some other homework and head out here again. She would do that about five time throughout her day tell the sun went down.

Once Angelina found a good spot to place the sun dial down she sat her bag down and everything else. Taking the sun dial she pointed the arrow north and look towards the east at the little bit of sun rising above the mountains near Hogwarts. Thinking she looked down at the sun dial trying to find out what time it was. For what she say it looked to be about 6 in the morning. Angelina wrote everything down in her notebook to keep track. Before she did so she checked her watch. She was only 30 minutes off but nothing major. In her journal she wrote her plane down for the day and what time she believed it to be now, not what time her watched said. Placing her pen as a bookmark in her notebook she close it placed it in her bag and sat watching the rest of the sun rise.

Astronomy Homework with Daichi / post #3
 

What's a donald duck? Louisa's smile didn't falter, "You're not a muggleborn, then?" Or he was not a fan of classics. The girl was flipping through her book as she explained happily, "He's a famous fiction duck. With clothes and everything." She paused with her book and glanced at him, "Maybe I should bring you the comics." Unless he didn't like ducks as much as she assumed he was? Or he liked animal!ducks not fictional-character!ducks.

Louisa's eyes were wide with surprise as he announced seriously that he never jokes about ducks and then started flailing his arms, clearly upset about her indifference. She didn't get the chance to reply to that because he forced a bow and introduced himself. What with bowing, though. She kew Jonathan and Kurumi to be of the bowing type too, not that Jonathan ever bowed to her but he would if she was less annoying. "Nice to meet you too, Daichi. I like the bow, I don't bow though, I shake hands." Maybe it was something only Asians do? Quite interesting theory. Louisa was stretching her hand toward the boy now.

Gnomon is a funny name. That was what she got from him. BLINK. "It's... amusing." NOT. But she didn't want to scare children away from education, she'd be responsible for his life's doom. But heeey, he repeated what she'd said lamely and it was correct! Louisa's smile brightened as she nodded at him, "Exactly. First thing is to let the arrow, Gnomon, face North. And of course we should make sure that the sundial is on a steady firm ground. We shouldn't touch it."

Louisa's hand sank into the big pocket of the clock and took a magical compass out. She held it flat close to her sundial and watched the needle flip and spin until it stabled. The girl held the back edge of the arrow and rotated it so the head of it pointed North. "Here, do yours." Holding the compass out to him, she'd supervise him as he did it.

Astronomy HW Post#2
 

Once Angelina was finished with breakfast in the Great Hall with some friends she happily took the sundial and her bag back up to the observatory. She was ready for her second out of five time to go check this out for her homework. From where she was earlier when the sun rise she sat her stuff down again arrow on the sundial pointing north. The sun has moved a lot over the world since she last was here.

Taking her notebook out she opened it up to the page she marked with her pen and was ready to write the time she saw now. Looking down she saw it looked at be about 9. Narrowing her eyes she pulled her sleeve up to see her watch, and see if she was correct. Looking she saw it was eight not nine. Well she needed to fix this to see what ended up wrong. Placing her notebook down she crouched down bear the sundial and looked to see what was wrong. It took he awhile tell she realized the sundial wasn't exactly pointing north. After Angelina move it to truly point north she saw the time really was 8. Standing up she grabbed her notebook and wrote down what happen again. Now she would come back later. Maybe after she was done with her Ancient Runes homework? Taking everything with her she headed to the Slytherin Common Room.

Post #4 - Setting up the sundial
 

Astronomy HW post#3
 

Angelina was so caught up in her work and talking to friends she forgot to continue her assignment for Astronomy. Once she looked outside with walking down a corridor she saw the sun was almost to the point to start setting. That's when she remembered the sundial. Oh no! She grabbed everything she needed quickly and headed out back to the observatory. She would just have to continue the rest of the times she would do this for tomorrow.

Now she was finally in the observatory setting her sundial up, arrow pointing north and notebook ready to write some notes. Looking down with eyebrows raised she looked to see it was only about 5 in the afternoon and the sun was starting to set. Taking out her watch, she checked to see if she was correct and she was. It was about 5 o'clock. Writing this down she packed up quick and headed back to the common room. She would come here tomorrow first thing when she wakes up.

Sophie smiled when Tayla thanked her. "You're welcome! And thank you for letting me come with you! I learned a lot!" She would've been totally lost if it wasn't for Tayla anyway!

Sophie could stay there watching the stars for a lot longer. She was extremely excited and she liked to stay up at night. But it would be better indeed if they went back to their common rooms now. They had already spent a long time up there and there was more work to do the next day.

"Yeah, it's best if we go now." She put her things away and looked back up at Tayla. "We should meet up again soon!"

Mystery Telescope Challenge 6
 

Minerva went up to the observatory to work on her next constellation. She felt like she hadn't been in her journal in awhile. She wrote the date 12/4 and the time 9:00 p.m. She then took out her book and put together the telescope putting it together and making sure it was angled correctly. After she was done putting the telescope together Minerva looked into her book to see what constellations she might be finding tonight. Since it was December she looked for the constellations that would be best seen in December. She found that she might be able to see Aries, Cetus, Eridanus, Fornax, Horologuim, Hydrus, Perseus, and Traiangulum. Minerva got up and started looking in her telescope. Now Aries was one that she had heard of it was the same name as the birthday signs. So she thought she might look for that one. As she looked around she spotted some stars so she moved her imaginary line to see what shape it would make. As she looked at the shape in the sky she checked her book and realized it was not Aries, but which one was it she thought.

Minerva looked in her book. She then looked to the sky she was at 45 degrees and a latitude of 90 and -35. She checked her book and realized the constellation she was looking at was Perseus. She looked in her book and realized it's translation was The Hero. She thought for a second it was the perfect constellation for her to find in her life right now. She looked up at the constellation again. She pulled her journal to her and began to write all of this down as well as sketching the constellation she was looking at.

Perseus
Minerva then closed her journal and her book putting it back in her bag. She put away her telescope and headed out of the observatory for the evening.

mystery telescope challenge post 2
 

For the second time since Tennessee got really bus she barely remembered she was earning for some extra credit for Astronomy. Trying her best to stay awake that night, she should be sleeping since it's almost 9 in the evening however she had set her goals that every month atleast, she could go up the towers to take a good view of the sky and some of the stars.

Along with her notebook she dragged herself to the observatory glancing every now and then at her watch. She'd have to catch 9PM since it's the time those stars are really visible up the sky.

She made a run towards one of the telescope in the northern part and started adjusting it for a clearer view. She again glanced back at her wristwatch, it's just a minute before 9 strikes. It's perfect, she muttered at the back of her head.

As she peered again in her telescope, she thought what month it is. "It's October," she said to no one in particular. "Hmmm, so i should be seeing the aquarius, pegasus or what were those again?" she said rubbing her chin with her left hand as her right hand moved the telescope slowly on odd directions. The sky is really clear and bright that night, lucky for her. She hoped every time she'd do that it'll be always like that.

She came to a halt when she had engrossed herself analysing what formation could that be at about 90 to -60 degree latitude. She paused for a moment then tore off her gaze at the heavens to check one of the star charts provided by Professor Roslund. She stared at the pictures as her hand pointed and traced one by one the pictures. Then once more she peered into her telescope. As she traced in her mind what she saw in the star chart up at the sky she began to realise that it's the Pegasus which she had been looking at.

"The winged Horse," she whispered with a smile. Her imagination once again ruled as she envisioned the white horse with wings running around. She used to watch the muggle fiction Hercules.

She jotted down some on her notes and snapped it closed. She's done for the night. She really have to go to bed. She yawned and left the astronomy tower.

RP Challenge Post 2
 

Gideon met Selina's eyes when she finally switched her gaze from the heavens to look up at him. "Well good, then we can study and have fun stargazing at the same time," he remarked with a smile. He would hate to have failed so early on in his endevour. Catching her gesture, he moved obediantly to take a seat of his own beside her at the end of the telescope, setting his bag down beside him within reach.

He gave an amused smirk as she called him professor, reminded of the conversation they had had down on the grounds. "I had thought we'd at least start out by seeing what we can see and identify," he answered having been running late because he had looked to see if there was something in their books or notes about what should certainly be seen this time of year. The astronomy buff didn't want to make silly mistakes. And seeing as they didn't often have lessons in December somethings were bound to be missed at their peak in the cycle.

"Now what were ye looking at?" he asked curious since not all astronomy necessarily need instruments.

Astronomy HW Post 4
 

After making sure that the gnomon was positioned correctly, Ella watched the shadow that was cast by it. Then she looked at the markings on the sundial so that she could figure out what time of day it is. Grabbing her notebook, she scribbled down her findings, making a sketch of what she was seeing for extra clarification. She noted that according to the sundial, it was 11:00. Pulling out her watch from inside her bag, Ella checked to see if her reading was correct. Her watch read 11:15 and Ella smiled. She had read that sundials give an approximate time of day so her reading was actually quite good. "Yes yes yesssss." Ella said excitedly. She was pretty surprised she had actually done an accurate reading as the sundial, like the nocturnal, was pretty foreign to her.

Post #5 - Using the sundial
 

Astronomy HW Post 5
 

Ella was now done with her homework. She bent down to pick up her notebook, wanting to make sure she had completed all the necessary notes on both the nocturnal and the sundial. Satisfied, she placed the notebook back in her bag and bent down to retrieve the sundial. She had to get it back to the Professor before handing in her homework. She picked it up gently and headed back to the dormitory so she could get the nocturnal too. She wanted to return both instruments and be able to cross this assignment off in her agenda. It felt great to have another assignment done!

When he sat down beside her Gideon went straight into answering her question on what he intended to teach her about. The boy had an infinite knowledge about astronomy and potions. She supposed he had to be because, well, his parents were experts in the field. She was almost certain that they were Professors in those subjects at one point. However, there son was like a sponge; it was like he had just absorbed all of the information that his parents had offered up to him. Brilliant guy. So when he knew exactly what they were going to do she could not help but be a little impressed. That and it seemed as if he came all too prepared to work on astronomy related things, which Selina had limited knowledge about.

He turned the questioning back around at her and then her gaze shifted back to the sky. Her hand lifted and directed him to the cluster of stars that she was pointing to beside the big dipper. "That," she answered simply, "I was looking at that. Whatever that is..."

Astronomy HW Post #4
 

Waking up late this morning Angelina went and got breakfast in the Great Hall then heading out fast to the Observatory to get part of the sundial assignment done. It didn't matter what time of day she got there she just needed to get it done. Angelina was so close to being done and she wasn't doing this in successes as she wanted to, but it was alright at lease she is getting it down.

Taking her sundial she placed the arrow north. Today wasn't as clear as yesterday. They were spoiled to have such nice weather yesterday, but today were fine. It was a big cloudy and the sun was hiding behind the clouds a little bit. Not too much thought to where she couldn't tell where it was at all.

Opening her notebook she looked down at the sundial to see what time it should be right now. The last time she really only looked at the clock today was when she woke up and freaked out because she was late to breakfast. Getting there near the end she rushed out not caring what time it was. So she was guessing it has been a while since looking. On the sundial it looked to be about 9 or 10. Writing it down of her guess from the sundial in her notebook, she pulled up her sleeve and looked at her watch, it was close to 10. Good she did it right. Putting everything she needed away she headed out of the observatory tell later whenever she would catch up on her last try.

RP Challenge Post #3
 

So the 5th year was more then a bit into their plans, the subject of astronomy having quite a hold on his interest. Gideon looked up and followed her gaze up to the night sky to where Selina was looking and pointing out her target. The one was familiar to him and the other fell in right around it. "I believe thats the rest of Ursa Major...the big bear constellation that the stars of the Big Dipper are part of," he answered playing what they were both seeing.

Turning to the telescope beside them, the 5th year looked through the viewer and shifted it slightly so it was focused on the very celestrial items, adjusting it so you would see it in more detail. "Here..." he said shifting aside so Selina could look into it. "...have a closer look." Different perspectives always gave a new sense of excitement.

Astronomy HW Post#5
 

Angelina went out once more to see the time of day with her sundial. She talked to a few friends about this assignment, and she wasn’t sure if she was doing this right, which concerned her very much. Was she supposed to come out here once, use the sundial and find things? All her friends did different things, and she was one of them that did something different. Even if this worried her, she was this far along already so she might as well finish. Oh how stupid she could be? Oh well.

Taking a deep breath Angelina came to the observatory, and decided to pick a different spot to set her sundial up. Walking to the opposite side she was at, she placed the sundial down and opened her notebook. It was nearly dark out, but just good enough to see the sun still and tell the time. Pointing the arrow north Angelina looked at the time of day it said, which read nearly six o’clock. Turning to her notebook she wrote down what she saw and about what happen. She also checked her watch to tell how far off she was, which wasn’t too much at all. After she finally finished writing down everything the sun already set and it was dark out. Looking up in the sky she saw half of the sky covered in clouds and the other half clear. Maybe she could see some planets and stars. Looking up thru the telescope she dug out of her bag was Pisces. Taking her pen she began to write down what she saw in her notes with everything she has been doing the past two days. After she was done she looked up at the sky once more and down at her notes. Her notebook was full of about two pages, back and front of notes she took about what she has been doing with her sundial and what she found. Oh she hoped she did this right! She then thought again to change her mind and thought, ’it will be alright, even if you did it wrong, you will get at least some credit, it’s better than none at all and just not doing this.’

Angelina closed her notebook and places her notebook, pen and telescope in her big bag and took the sundial, and started walking off to the outside of Professor Roslund's office to place the sundial into one of the big boxes. She was finally done and was ready to turn her homework in. She really did enjoy spending time with the sundial and getting to know how to use it way better than she ever did.

As she walked to Professor Roslund’s office she took the sundial and looked over it, making sure she didn’t break anything on it. Luckily it was the same as when she got it. Even thought he wouldn’t know who did what to what sundial, she would still have told him. She first thought if anything was broken she would just place it in the box and get away with it, but that didn’t make her feel good at all, she would have told him if something was wrong with it. Again luckily nothing was. When Angelina arrived at Roslund’s office she walked to the big boxes outside the office and placed the sundial in down carefully so she wouldn’t reek it. After that was done she headed off to her common room, and work on some more homework.

Selina watched Gideon's face as he intently looked at the cluster of stars she had pointed out. He was really studying, searching his head for the answer he already knew. Finally it dawned on him and he informed her that it was the Ursa Major. She had no idea what that was, but it seemed that he had come prepared for that. He shifted the telescope to her so she could get a better looked. She looked sideways at him and smiled before she took a look inside the telescope.

There, inside the scope and beyond to the universe, was a mesh of stars and a wonderful universe lay out in front of her. Her eyes widened at the sight and her eyes darted from side to side wanting to see everything she could. No wonder Gideon loved this stuff. It was amazing. She removed her face from the telescope and said hurriedly to him, "It'S beautiful.". Then she went back to looking inside the telescope like an excited three year old.

"I'm a halfblood..." he said, still confused about the whole donald duck thing. Just because he was half muggle didn't mean he knew EVERYTHING about them. But...this donald duck character sounds AMAZING~! "A famous duck with clothes on?!" that was so cool!

Daichi blushed as Louisa was talking about his bow. He scratched the back of his neck and laughed a little. "Sorry, i was raised to bow in greeting." he mumbled. She must think he was weird, he had had a lot of reactions on why he was bowing. It was just something he did. And he remembered freaking out in his second year when that dueling master told them that bowing was a sign of..well.. wanting a duel. Oh hand! He grabbed the hand and shook it.

And again with the gnomon. Daichi couldn't help but chuckle again at the word. "Can't we call it arrow?" he asked because he was afraid he would be laughing soon more than learning something. The Slytherin looked at his sundial and that it stood pretty stable on the table. He looked at Louisa as she grabbed a compass from her pocket and carefully watched how she found the North.

Grabbing the compass with a "thank you" he stood in front of the sundial and held the compass in front of him. The needle spun around until it finally landed on the big N which he thought would be north. "So now i move the arrow on the sundial too" do not say Gnomon hehe "right?"

Astronomy Homework with Daichi / post #4
 

Watching Daichi's enthusiasm about Donald Duck was very amusing. "Yes. He's quite funny, too. He has this cute little chapeau on his head." What with taunting the boy? She definitely needed to get a pic when she went home for Christmas.

"Don't apologize, I find it quite charming," she grinned at him. Really, few years later this boy would look like a gentleman bowing for ladies. Louisa liked this vision. She didn't say anything about it, though, and focused on the boy's study work. Hmm. He was getting it at last.

"Yes, that's right." She smiled, a bit proud that she managed to pass on her legendary compass-work to someone. Hehe. "Now, the arrow.." emphasizing on the word that he suggested they should use, ".. casts a shadow on the sphere with numbers on it. You try to see which number does the shadow touch and it'll be the time of the day."

Moving her eyes away from Daichi and onto her own sundial, she tilted her head trying to read her number. The shadow was so faint considering the sunlight in such weather but she managed to get a shadow close to number three... so maybe it was three fifteen or three thirty in the afternoon. Straightening up, the Ravenclaw looked at him in anticipation. "What did you get?"

Astronomy homework -Post 1
 

Silvia made her way up the stairs to the observatory, the sundial she had borrowed from Professor Roslund tucked into the bag hanging from her shoulder. She found herself a spot on the north side and set her bag down. Rummaging through it, she pulled out the sundial and set it before her, then placed her notebook next to it. She opened the notebook and turned to the page with her notes on sundials. “Okay, let’s see,” she said to herself. “Turn it so that the arrow is facing northward.” The young student had already remembered that the sundial had to be aligned to the north, which is why she had placed herself on the north side of the tower. Pulling out her wand, she laid it on her palm and said “Point Me.” It was a useful little spell that she had only recently discovered, and it had been pretty easy to learn. Although Silvia could point out the general direction of north, she wanted to make sure she lined the sundial up perfectly for better accuracy. The wand spun slightly and stopped, pointing in the direction just slightly to the right of where the sundial was currently facing. With her free hand she adjusted the sundial accordingly, then she put her wand away and checked her notes for the next step.

RP Challenge Post #4
 

Gideon watched as Selina took her turn at the telescope to see what she had noticed before from a closer perspective thanks to the instrument in front of her. He had to admit, even if it was to himself, to see her reaction when she saw the difference and the new detail, the widdening of her eyes even visible with the viewfinder of the scope in the way.

"Aye...that it is," he remarked in agreement, smiling as Selina seemed to see what he saw, that the night sky had a nice view...well as long as it was a clear evening. At least astronomy was a class they could share since potions clearly wasn't available with her hatred of the subject. "Do ye see anything else?" he asked the 5th year glancing at the notes he had and comparing it to what he had thought he himself had seen before. It might still be visible or it might need a little tweaking of the location of the telescope's view. But he figured he would ask her to see what she could pick up.

Astronomy homework -Post 2
 

"Okay, now the sunlight should cause the arrow to create a shadow on the sundial, and that shadow will indicate the time," the first year said to herself after glancing at her notes. She leaned forward to get a closer look at the sundial, but a small cloud had just covered up the sun, so she would have to wait until it passed. Meanwhile, Silvia examined the instrument. In place of the numbers that would be present on a clock were roman numerals. She wasn't an expert on roman numerals, but luckily she knew enough that reading the time shouldn't be too much of a problem. The sun came out from behind the cloud and Silvia had to pull back her head a little, for her own shadow had gotten in the way. She shifted over slightly to get a better view of where the shadow fell on the sundial. "It looks like it's almost one o'clock," she said, noticing the shadow wasn't quite on the roman numeral for one just yet. She checked her watch. It was 12:52. She made note of this in her notebook and then quickly packed up her things. She would have to return the sundial later; her afternoon classes would be starting in a few minutes. She rushed out of the observatory.