Tristan bounded up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower. Finally! It had taken him long enough to retrieve his glove from the entrance hall, and by this time the stars had already started to peek out. He was just in time.

Taking a stance near the edge of the tower, the second year dared himself to look over the edge. Suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of vertigo, Tristan stepped back. That was a long fall... he'd just be sure to be careful. The boy removed his telescope from its snug casing, holding it firmly with both hands. A jumbled mess was all that could be seen as he placed his eye to the lense. Furrowing his brow, the boy toyed with the dial until the night sky came into clear view. There!

A string of stars fell in line with one another, marking Orion's belt. Another ways over showed a cluster of stars with a name Tristan couldn't quite put his finger on. Removing his eye from the lense, the boy unfolded his spare star-charting map. Running his finger over the various dots and marks, he picked out his cluster of stars, putting his eye back to the lense just to make sure. From what he could tell, it appeared to be the constellation Hydrus. Tristan checked his watch: 8:53 PM, perfect. It seemed like they were in full view.

Sadly, however, it was nearly time for him to be back in bed. Professor Lafay would have his head if she found out he got in trouble for being out of bed after hours. And it was a long walk to the dungeons. Packing up his things, Tristan waved goodbye to Hydrus and the Astronomy Tower's frightening plummet, promising to return another day.

Amelia shivered a bit as she made her way up the stairs to the Observatory. She really should have worn a thicker sweater, she mused. But she honestly didn't want to bother heading all the way back down to the Hufflepuff Common Room so that she could get a sweater from her Dormitory. This one would have to do for the moment.

Walking over to where the telescopes were set up, she scanned the instruments over until she had found one that satisfied her. She was going to look at the constellation Orion tonight and see if she could spot the famous Orion's Belt. She wasn't sure why she had always liked this constellation, but maybe it was the fact that it's name in English meant The Hunter; it actually was named after a hunter in Greek mythology called Orion. She always liked things that represented something strong or someone who was strong. It also didn't hurt that this constellation was one of the most recognizable in the night sky.

She knew that the constellation composed of three different parts. There were the bright stars that stood in a row and they made up what was called the Belt of Orion. Then there were bright stars surrounding this Belt; they were supposed to represent the body of the hunter. And descending from the Belt was another, smaller line of stars which was known as the hunter's sword. Orion had two nebulas in it as well, one known as The Great Nebula or Orion Nebula and the other (Which was harder to see) was called the Horsehead Nebula or Barnard 33. She also knew that the constellation had two super giants in it; Betelgeuse, which represented the hunter's shoulder, and Rigel which represented the hunter's foot.

She now turned to her notes so that she could get the coordinates for the constellation:

Quote:

Right Ascension: 5 hours
Declination: 5 degrees
Visible between latitudes 85 and -75 degrees
Best seen in January (at 9:00 PM)

Adjusting her telescope with the coordinates, she looked through the sky until she had located Orion. She smiled, and then made out the different parts of the hunter's body. She did a quick sketch of it and then wrote a bit about it in her notebook.

Silvia made her way up to the observatory. She had been so busy with classes and studying that she had had very few opportunities for coming up here. She quickly set up her telescope. Pulling out her astronomy book, she turned to the page on constellations for the month of January. The first major constellation that the page depicted was Orion the hunter. Silvia was somewhat familiar with this constellation; at least, she could identify it by its belt. She looked at the ascension and declination coordinates, but she still didn’t know how to use those to locate anything. So she put her eye to the telescope and settled for just scanning the sky for the belt. It didn’t take too long to find the three stars in close alignment. Then, focusing her eyes on the area closely surrounding the three stars, she saw the few stars that made up its body. The arms were more difficult to make out amongst all the other stars and she had to zoom in a little. But once she managed to spot them she zoomed back out a little and then reached for her notebook to make a quick sketch and note.

Turning her attention back to her book, she scanned the page until she came across the listing for the constellation Taurus, one of the twelve signs in astrology. The book mentioned that the easiest part of the constellation to find was the horns, which formed a ‘V’ shape. Using that information as well as the star chart on the next page, she tried to locate the bull. It took what felt like forever, but she managed to find what looked like a V shape among the stars. Hoping this was it, she made note of the finding. Silvia yawned. It was getting late and she had class in the morning. She packed up and headed out.

When Amelia headed up the stairs to the Observatory, she already had a different plan for tonight in mind than she had for the other nights of stargazing she had done so far. Today she was heading up here just after sunset, and her goal was to spot Venus. She knew that this planet was rather easy to see in the sky since it was one of earth's neighbours. In fact, it was possible to spot Venus with the naked eye. But since this was an exercise where telescopes were to be used it was really best to do so or she could lose some marks.

Finding a telescope that she wanted to do her work with, she set all her stuff down and then went about making sure that the lens was set correctly as she didn't want anything to be blurry when she spotted her planet. Since it was just after sunset, she turned her telescope so that it was facing the west as that was the proper location to find Venus in at its time of the cycle. Knowing that Venus had phases and waxed and waned like the moon, she had made sure to consult a cycle chart before coming up here, and that was how she knew where to look in the sky.

She looked through the telescope carefully, moving it around and adjusting it a little bit here and there until she finally located the planet. Of course she couldn't see the whole thing in the sky, but she still saw part of it and that was enough for her. She happily started sketching what she saw in her notebook now before jotting down a few notes about Venus.

Silvia eagerly made her way up to the astronomy tower. There was supposed to be a full moon that night; and not only that, there was to be a lunar eclipse too. She couldn’t wait. She glanced at her watch; she was a few minutes early for the eclipse. So she turned her telescope and just looked around at the stars, not looking for anything in particular, but just admiring them. The amateur astronomer easily spotted the constellation of Orion, and then Ursa major and minor. After a few more minutes of scanning the skies, Silvia redirected her telescope back to the moon. She was just in time; the eclipse was starting! At the very edge of the moon was a thin, sliver of shadow.

Slowly over the next few minutes, the shadow grew larger, and the moon grew dimmer. Several passed, then a few more, in which Silvia had to adjust the telescope several times so that it still faced the orbiting moon. By then the young Ravenclaw noticed something interesting; rather than disappearing completely under the shadow, instead the moon seemed to become darker and reddish in color. Quickly, she scrambled to pull her notebook out of her bag and lit her wand, then made note of this observation. Maybe later that week she would have to stop by the library to research why the moon turned red; or she could just ask the professor next class.

For a little while longer Silvia observed the moon through the telescope, occasionally letting the instrument stray to the stars for a moment before returning it to the eclipse, until the entire moon was enveloped in a red cloak. She reached for her watch and after seeing the time, quickly stood up and started gathering her things. It was almost curfew and she hadn’t asked Professor Roslund for permission to stay up late. Oh well, she was tired anyway, and the exciting part of the eclipse was pretty much over. She packed up her telescope last, then took one last, long look at the moon before heading back to the Ravenclaw tower.

After doing this challenge for a few months, Amelia was getting used to the Observatory. She didn't even really glance at the pictures and posters on the walls anymore. Though she did glance around at the people in the room with her. Unfortunately she didn't see anyone she knew; if only Zayden was doing this challenge with her. She'd know someone then.

Finding herself a telescope, she headed over to it and carried out the usual routine of making sure that it was set up right and adjusting the lens for her needs. Today she had planned to spot the star Sirius, located in the constellation Canis Major, so she had done some research on it. She liked researching space stuff. Maybe she was weird. :/

She knew that it was easy to find the star if she located Orion. It was located to the south east of Orion, so if she made out Orion's Belt and followed the three stars in a south westerly direction until she reached the next brightest star... she would have found Sirius. Sirius is the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Major.

Scanning through her notes quickly, she found the coordinates she used when she had searched for Orion. After she memorized them, she used the information in order to find Orion. Now she located Orion's belt, and heading off from the three stars in a south westerly direction as instructed to, she found the bright star of Sirius.

Messer made his way toward the Observatory to complete the Mystery Telescope Challenge Professor Roslund gave them. He went toward his usual spot and put his bag on the floor. As usual, he took out his telescope from his bag and set it up. Thank Merlin its not too cloudy today so he could see the stars clearly.

Hmm..Its February that mean he could see the Canis Major or the Great Dog and his all time favorite star, Sirius. Messer made sure that his telescope already facing south and the first thing he need to do is located the Orion. Its not too hard to locate the Orion. The young badger drew a line with his right hand through Orion’s belt to the south till he found Sirius and the rest of the Canis Major.

Amelia was feeling very energetic tonight, so she practically bounced her way up the stairs to the Observatory. She had decided that she was going to try to find the constellation Serpens (the Snake).

Bounding over to a telescope, she hummed to herself as she checked to see if everything was in order as far as the focus was concerned. When she was satisfied that the zoom was correct, she looked at the coordinates she had written down:

Quote:

Right Ascension: 17 hours
Declination: 0 degrees
Visible between latitudes 80 and -80 degrees
Best seen in July (at 9:00 PM)

She entered the coordinates into the telescope and was about to spot the Snake when something nearby caught her attention. It was beautiful and purple and... huge. This was what was called a nebula. She remembered learning about them in class when she was younger. They were a region of gas and dust where young stars were being formed.


Noticing what seemed to look like pillars, she realized that she was looking at the Eagle Nebula, because she had heard that this nebula seemed to have pillars. And looking at it closer, she kinda could see it as looking a bit like an eagle.

She was happy now that she had actually found a place in the sky where stars were being born. True, she had spotted them before, but today everything seemed exciting to her. She quickly gathered her notebook from her bag and did a sketch of it before packing her stuff up and leaving the observatory.

His camera bag slung over his shoulder, Vickers made his way towards the Astronomy tower, passing by the cabinet that houses the small telescopes. Borrowing one for the Astronomy project, he found himself a nice spot by one of the windows and started to identify the constellations on this part of the world. It really wasn’t that much different from back home, except perhaps some seem to be larger or positioned a little differently. Then he shifted the telescope towards the brightest light source in the sky-- the moon. Then he had an idea. After a few twists of the telescope and creative positioning of his camera he clicked the button to take a photo of the moon. He drew the camera back, then smiled. Yes he was very happy with the results.

Everyone seemed to be making such a big fuss about all the discoveries made while stargazing. Pfffft. To Gwen, studying Astronomy was kind of pointless. Why do we need to know stuff about stars and planets and yada yada yada?, she thought as she found herself walking along the corridor, dragging herself towards the Observatory. As soon as she got there, Gwendolyn took one of the telescopes and tried finding a good spot for stargazing. Errr. Any would be fine. It’s not like it would make any difference, the young Ravenclaw thought as she opened a book and flipped through its pages. Staring blankly at all the pictures and schemes, Gwen realized she wasn’t able to understand anything.

Simply looking through the telescope would be enough. Mhmm. Definitely, the third year told herself. Still glimpsing at the sky, Gwen stretched her hand in order to place the book back in her bag. As she did so, the third year hit something with it. Errr. Or someone. Hmph. Quickly turning her head in that direction to see what she’d just hit, Gwen remained a bit puzzled. Why was he standing in her way? I should make a quick excuse and mind my own business. ‘Sorry’, she said curtly.

It was now April, and the school year was coming to an end soon. Amelia still had a few more constellations to look at, and tonight she was going to gaze at Hydra, the largest constellation in the sky. As with Hydrus -- which she had looked at in December -- Hydra was known as a 'water snake'. In fact it was the female water snake while Hydrus was the male water snake.

She had found a telescope and made sure that the focus was set correctly and then looked at her sheet to get the coordinates:

Quote:

Right Ascension: 10 hours
Declination: -20 degrees
Visible between latitudes 60 and -90 degrees
Best seen in April (at 9:00 PM)

She entered the coordinates into the telescope and turned her gaze to Hydra. She studied it closely and moved her gaze around in order to see different parts of the constellation. Noticing a star that seemed brighter than the others, she figured that this was alpha Hydrae (also known as Alphard) 'the solitary one'. This was the brightest star in the constellation.

Next, she turned her gaze even more and noticed first one and then another yellow giant. One was gamma Hydrae (also knows as Dhanab al Shuja) 'the Snake's tail'. The other was zeta Hydrae (also known as Hydrobius) 'water-dweller'. She just couldn't remember which was which.

After gazing at the constellation for a bit more, Amelia pulled away from her telescope and pulled out her notebook. She did a sketch of Hydra and then wrote some notes on what she had seen.

Given how well his moon photo turned out a new idea popped up in Vicker's head. Just as he was readjusting the telescope he felt something hard hit against his arm-- which got his had pushing the telescope out the Astronomy window...

Aak!

Quick reflexes had him grasping after the telescope just as it teetered over the edge. Drawing it to himself he let out a panicked sigh of relief, then turned as he heard a voice beside him. "Uhh... sure. No problem." Yeah no problem NOW, it wouldnt be the case if the telescope was in a hundred pieces at the bottom the tower.

He began the careful reassembly of equipment for his idea, glancing back at the girl from time to time to make sure she wouldnt be hitting him with anything else. The setup was dependent that the camera keep still. After waving his wand to get the camera started he glanced at the clock tower to take a note of the time. He shifted his attention back to the girl. "You here for the Astronomy Project?"

Seriously. She could have simply left the book there, but NOOOOO, Gwen had to do something stupid. As she heard him mumble something, the third year tried hard not to frown or say anything rude. Enough was enough. But wait- what did I do that was so wrong?, she asked herself. Psh. A ‘Reparo’ would have worked if the telescope would have crashed- - - Right? Riiight??? Well, no. And she definitely felt bad for being so clumsy.

Gwendolyn then drew her attention back to her telescope. ‘Oh. Umm. Kind of’ NOT. Anyway- her main task right now was to avoid doing anything stupid… again . ‘Lens focalis!’, the young Ravenclaw said loud and clear, tapping the telescope with her wand. She could at least cast the spell right. But finding any planet or start that she could actually recognize was definitely hard. Too hard. ‘Which planet do you think can be spotted best now?’, the third year mused, still looking through the telescope at some random starts.

‘I don’t believe we met before…’, Gwendolyn said as she looked back at him. Nope. He definitely didn’t look familiar to her. ‘I’m Gwen, by the way’, she even tried to smile, but only a grin came out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fanficfanatict

Selina looked curiously at Gideon when he answered her statement. It was not that she did not believe that what he said was fact, it was just sort of hard to believe. The whole concept sent her mind into overdrive and she could legitimately not think straight at the moment. Did that mean, if what he said was true, which she dis believe was most likely the case, that there were other universes where other life could exist? The whole idea was just crazy. That was where he had lost her... Her mind going into over drive.

She tried to piece together what he was saying before she responded, "Okay I'm going to go with you on that. It sounds logical enough... But what if, well, you know what nevermind.". When she finally gathered her thoughts she asked, "So universe has millions of galaxies, got it. Now what about a solar system. What makes up a solar system per say. I know stars and stuff... But is that it?". It couldn't be.

Gideon could see the mixture of confusion and estonishment that was visible in Selina's face and he could certainly see how dubious what he was talking about could seem. It was hard to think of how big the universe outside your own world could be when you couldn't exactly touch or see either other then from a distance with the help of tools like telescopes such as the one the were currently using. The fifth year almost wishing he could see inside her head for surely there had to be all sorts of wheels going trying to sort it all out as Selina questioned what she was being told further for more clues to use.

"Well a solar system...like our solar system for example, is made up of a star, planets- eight in our case and the moons that various planets of the solar system may have," he answered, working it out in his own head to think on how best to explain. "I supposed other stuff can be included, like dwarf or smaller planets and asteroid fields." Gideon may be knowledgeable in astronomy but he was in no ways an expert.

The trek up the many stairs to the observatory was still tiring for the small first year, though a bit easier than it was the first few times. But she didn’t mind. Especially since there was something special going on in the night sky tonight; a meteor shower.

When she reached the observatory, Silvia set up her telescope as usual. Then she pulled out her notebook and textbook. She double-checked the name of tonight’s shower in the back of her textbook and wrote the words ‘Lyrids’ on a fresh page of her notebook. Setting the notebook aside and looking up, she stared at the night sky. There was nothing. No movement. The moon wasn’t visible tonight, which meant optimal viewing conditions. But the stars, which shone brightly, remained stationary. Silvia knew that shooting stars were actually meteors, but they still appeared more like moving stars than pieces of space rock. She hoped she would be able to see something. Putting her eye to the telescope, she looked around the sky, spotting some of the familiar constellations that always stood out.

After a few moments she sighed and pulled away from the telescope. Suddenly she thought she saw something, a sort of flicker, out of the corner of her eye. Silvia turned her head towards it but it had already disappeared. She continued to stare at the sky for a few moments before she saw it; a quick, beam of light that traveled a short distance in the vast sky before vanishing. A meteor! It had looked so pretty! The Ravenclaw watched as more meteors appeared every few minutes. It was definitely worth taking time off from studying to see this.

Amelia had decided that she would end this telescope challenge with looking at Mars through a telescope. She had heard that it wasn't exactly the easiest planet to see through a small telescope, but a medium or large telescope showed it with more detail.

Looking around the Observitory, she settled on a telescope right in the middle and headed right over to it. After placing her bag on the floor, she started looking through the lens and adjusting it so that it was in the correct focus.

Once she was done, she turned her gaze in the direction that she thought Mars would appear in, adjusting the focus more as she went.

After a little while, she had found it. It looked reddish, but also sorta white at the same time. The longer she looked, the clearer it all became to her. She could sort of make out the polar ice caps as well as the dark features of it.

Pulling away from her telescope after a bit, Amelia started writing notes on what she had seen, adding a sketch to go along with it.

August finshed climbing the staircase that lead out into the open-air section of the astronomy tower with the note from Professor Roslund giving him permission to be out of bed so late, clutched in his hand. He had it ready just incase a Professor tried to stop him on his way.

Once the Gryffindor made it out into the open, he carried his telescope over to the low wall and set it up, facing the night sky. It was so nice tonight, clear and sparkling with stars. He set his parchment and quill on the wall and began to set up the remaining parts of his scope and wrote the date and his name on his parchment just incase things happened he needed to record, like last time with the Goldberry comet.

With the night being a clear one, Gideon was downright giddy at least inwardly at the prospect of an evening spent at the observatory. He almost invited Selina to go with him but then opted to go on himself instead. His telescope,textbook, notes, parchment and quills carefully in his satchel, the 5th year made his way from the library to the stairs of the Astronomy tower and up. But when he reached the top he found he wasn't alone in his endeavor.


"Hey," he greeted walking closer, reconizing the figure as August as he did. "Mind some company?" Gideon questioned knowing he could probably set his own telescope somewhere else or come back another night...Merlin forbid...if it truly was a problem.

After finally setting up all of his things just the way he wanted, the fourth year slowly placed his eye on the viewing spot of the telescope and was beginning to look around the sky for something interesting when he heard footsteps approaching.

The boy had been around too many kids in his Astronomy lessons to not remember to step back from the eye piece when others were coming near because a quick bump and you could have a black eye. It was a fellow Quidditch teammate. "Hey Gideon, Astronomy work too I suppose?" he said with a nod at the request to join and then went back to stargazing. Mars was shining bright. At least Auggie thought it was mars.

"Aye...of course," Gideon confirmed with a nod glad to see there would be no trouble with space. "Though I do come up here on my own at times. Tonight just seemed too nice to miss." Gently setting down his bag, he took his telescope from within and began setting it up, the older boy fiddling with it so that it was just right to his liking. He took after his mother in that respect, always wanting his instruments just so.

Satisfied, he looked once more steadily into the lens of the telescope, the item aimed towards the south. Finding an object he reconized, Gideon took out his notes to double check and smiled. "Seems we're not the only lions out tonight," he mused with a soft chuckle, the fifth year looking at the Leo constellation.

This was it. Tonight was the night. There was no more time for planning or rehearsing. Tonight Ellie would become his fiance. Or she would... not. There was always that possibility. Dallin didn't like thinking about that option though. He would just focus on what he would say to her.

But, if he was being honest, he still didn't know what that was. He was just going to have to wing it. Hopefully that would work out smoothly.

Sighing to try to calm his nerves, Dallin stared down at the grounds around the tower. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, playing with the ring in one hand. He had accidentally left the box in his dorm and didn't want to go get it and risk not being here when Ellie arrived. The box wasn't important anyway.

This was kind of a tradition, wasn't it? Meeting up with Dallin at the end of the year at the Observatory. It was fun. Cute. And romantic. Heh.

With a little extra spring in her step, Ellie made her way down the corridor until she got to their special little little place. Which wasn't really little. And it was public. But whatever. It was their place, okay?

When Ellie walked in, she saw Dallin looking out over the grounds. She was going to be her usual sneaky self and tackle him or cover his eyes, but she didn't really want to scare him off the edge of the tower... So, she just walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his middle. "Hello," she said with a happy smile.

Of course he had been expecting her, but Dallin still jumped when he felt Ellie's arms around him. His unneeded surprise faded as he turned around and wrapped his arms around Ellie too, planting a kiss on her lips before pulling away enough to really look at her. "Hey," he greeted, smiling as he trailed his hands down her arms to hold her hands.

"Thanks for coming," he added as he looked around the Observatory. This was the third time they'd been up here on the last night of the term. Their anniversary, so to speak. Two years after they first said I love you to each other in this exact same spot. Surely Ellie would remember. She had to realize that something special was going to happen, right? Maybe?

Pulling her closer again, he gave her another hug. "You look beautiful, by the way."

He jumped. So much for trying not to scare him. Oh well. At least he didn't fall off the tower. Anyway. Ellie smiled when Dallin kissed her and held her hands. "Hi... again." She giggled quietly.

"You don't need to thank me," she told him with another smile. She would gladly, willingly come to this place anytime of day, any day of the week. The place where they first said "I love you". Even though it was kind of really corny, it was cute to Ellie. Corny wasn't always bad.

When Dallin pulled her in for a hug, Ellie hugged him back tightly. "Thank you," she said quietly and remembered the past two years of their lives. They had gone through so much. Near death experiences, way too much drama, and a break up that tore them apart. But now they were here. Together, in love, and happy as can be...

And suddenly, Ellie was getting emotional. Because this would be their last time at the observatory together. She suddenly felt a lump come to her throat. What? No. No... crying was not good. She was so happy a second ago and now Ellie felt like she was going to cry. She blinked them back and hoped that Dallin wouldn't pull away any time soon and see her eyes slightly wetter than usual.

Ellie's voice surprised Dallin when she spoke again. It was quiet. She had been so happy just seconds ago, and he could tell that something had changed. And quick. Panicking, Dallin pulled away and held her shoulders at arm's length so he could get another good look at her. And... she was crying.

"Ellie," Dallin croaked, his eyes wide when he saw his girlfriend's tears. "Don'tcry. Idon'tknowwhyyou'recrying." He hadn't even done anything yet! All he had said was that she was beautiful. THAT WASN'T THE PART SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO CRY AT. Actually, she wasn't supposed to cry at all. But Dallin knew that girls cried about these things so he expected it. BUT NOT YET.

"Hey," he whispered, pulling her into a hug again. "Shh." He trailed a hand over her shoulders, trying to calm her down so that she could freak out at the proper moment.