SnitchSeeker.com - Astronomy Lesson 1

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- Term 33: January - April 2013 (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-33-january-april-2013/)

- - Astronomy Lesson 1 :: in the Planetarium (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-33-january-april-2013/astronomy-lesson-1-in-the-planetarium-92397/)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin (Post 11302723)

"Anyone able to give me a shove toward the ceiling, please?"

Alice was still attempting to catch the evil yellow star when she heard a familiar voice calling for help. "Need some assistance, Cactus?" Some other person had already helped, too, but there were more stars at the very top, so Alice figured it could hurt to give him another boost. The lioness floated this way and that, but she finally managed to maneuver over to Mo by flapping her arms. Like a bird. Heh. "I've got you. So, what, just shove you up there?" She was good at shoving. Anything involving violence, really. But she could do it gently, too, she supposed. It wouldn't be that hard.

The fourth year braced her arms against Mo's shoulders and gave him a little push towards the ceiling. He drifted up higher, somehow nearing the meteors. "Is that high enough?" If it wasn't, she had no idea how she could get back up there and give him another boost. "And when you come back down, mind giving me a small shove, too?"

That would be HELPFUL. Ahem. Because she still could not reach that star. Stretch. Streeetch.

She was all kitted out and ready to go now, in very interesting gear she must admit. It was time, bring on the meteors. GAME FACE. This would certainly be interesting, she thought and imagined actually being in space. Like real space. Floating around and stuff and then, before she knew it, she got lots in her thoughts. When she finally returned to reality, Bliss realised that was flying ... floating ... whatever. WOW. Maybe she wasn't as ready as she'd thought.

*awkward spasms and moments*

This wasn't working. KICK, KICK, KICK. She wasn't going anywhere and she kinda needed to to get the meteors. This presented a little problem. Bliss kicked her legs and flailed her arms violently, almost knocking into a student, but she didn't have a chance to notice who, because she was suddenly being propelled forwards. Into a wall.

Ouch.

That was totally meant to happen.

Post 2 - Thanks, Awar!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awarlesta Black (Post 11302731)

Awar tried using a technique that was sort of frog-kicking-combined-with-mermaid-swimming-and-really-fast-movement to get around, but mostly just holding out her arm, pulling it when it was threatened to be broken.

A random boy was asking for a little shove, so she "swam" under him and pushed him up by the feet. "Er, there you go!"

Her eyes widened as a glowing blue object shot towards her, she closed her eyes and held out her glove, SLAM! Bingo! Blue one, down.

Oh, a push! Mo used the momentum from the random-but-nice Hufflepuff girl to get moving again, and he froggy-swam through the air toward the ceiling. "THANKS," he called behind him as he pulled his arms and legs in and violently thrust them out, shooting forward a bit before he tried it again. When he stalled again, Queen Alice was kind enough to give him another shove from behind.

"Thanks, thanks. Maybe if you grab my foot, I can pull you forward, and then you can push me again, and then I can pull you forward..." Teamwork, see?

Even now, he was JUUUUUST within grabbing distance of the lowest meteors, and Mo squished the glove down on his hand and reached out into space. A few streaks of light spun past, perhaps within grabbing distance but not close enough that he was willing to stretch for them.

Finally, one came close, and Mo extended his hand again. The meteor hit the edge of his glove and continued on past, although the impact set Mo to spinning backwards, head over feet. See? This was just as awesome as he'd thought.

Except now... feeling vommy. Someone stop him? "Help?"

3! and mentions of Alex

Awar nodded at Mo as she spotted a yellow meteor about to pass above. She attempted to boost herself up and stretched out her arm. It was like slow motion as it approached. INSERT DRAMATIC MUSIC HEEERREE...NOOOOO!! The meteor bounced off the top of her glove, but it was enough to send her backwards a bit. She flailed her arms, unknowing where she was heading, and sure enough she bumped into something or someone.

Someone. She turned to see who she had hit. She peered into the protective gear of the person. GASP. She recognized him as a 7th year in her house. A rather cute, 7th year. "Errr...Sorry!" Doggy-paddle away before you die of embarrassment!

Post #1 (Star Wars Reference :D)

Nerida watched and listened as Professor Airey told them what was going to happen and what they were supposed to do.

COOOLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!

No gravity...Loss of gravity! It was like no broom or gravity qudditch!! It was like space quidditch! Nerida didn't know how to prepare for no gravity. Tough when the Professor cast the spell... She was at loss for words...

She looked above her and saw the little meteors floating up above her. He said they would get hurt but not seriously hurt... She slowly bent her knees and tried moving up. She found it hard to avoid not bumping into the other students because she had to fight to get control of positioning her body. This was harder than trying to ride a broom for the very first time!

Nerida felt something brush by her shoulder. "Ouch..." Thank goodness she had her protective gear...But even with the gear it still hurt. The meteors.. Students weren't the only thing that she had to watch for.

She watched as the meteors flew past her, above and under her...None yet came at her...How was she supposed to move with no gravity was it just like walking with gravity?? Just as she started to try to move, a meteor came straight at her. She got her gloved hand in front of her hoping it was in the right position to catch the yellow meteor.

The yellow meteor came flying towards her...And she still had trouble moving... Though she felt her hand was not in the position to catch it. And ti wasn't... "BAM!!" The meteor hit her in her chest... She whispered another ouch..

She had never been great in sports, muggle and wizarding. She looked around..Other people had caught one on their first try...Luck just wasn't with her...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin (Post 11302759)

When he stalled again, Queen Alice was kind enough to give him another shove from behind.

"Thanks, thanks. Maybe if you grab my foot, I can pull you forward, and then you can push me again, and then I can pull you forward..." Teamwork, see?

Even now, he was JUUUUUST within grabbing distance of the lowest meteors, and Mo squished the glove down on his hand and reached out into space. A few streaks of light spun past, perhaps within grabbing distance but not close enough that he was willing to stretch for them.

Finally, one came close, and Mo extended his hand again. The meteor hit the edge of his glove and continued on past, although the impact set Mo to spinning backwards, head over feet. See? This was just as awesome as he'd thought.

Except now... feeling vommy. Someone stop him? "Help?"

That sounded like a good idea. Very Ravenclaw of him, yeah? "Okay, I can try." Alice held onto his ankle and kind of dangled there, kind of stuck. Was he going to go up again? She could feel Mo reaching up, because they moved forward a little, but then.. they were spinning, weren't they? It was even worse that she was still holding on to his leg, so she was hurtling around the room, too. But if she let go, that would probably send her ramming into a wall or something.

So she kept spinning, until they did smash into a wall, even though she hadn't let go or anything. .. OW. That hurt, y'know. But at least it stopped the spinning, right? And they were higher now, which meant that there were loads of meteors right there, within her reach. "Are you okay, Cactus?" Alice asked distractedly, reaching out to grab a yellow meteor. It didn't move.. and her gloved hand extended toward it.. YES.

"I'VE GOT ONE!" Finally.

Sherman was stuck. It wasn't easy maneuvering a wheelchair around in a place with no gravity, but he was somehow managing. The chair slowed him down a bit, though, which made it a little more difficult to catch the stars. The old man drifted all over the place, trying to grab at some, but it was still difficult. They moved fast, too fast. But he wouldn't give up, nope. If he was anything, it was persistent.

And. Finally, after AGES and AGES of attempting, a blue star was unable to avoid his grasp. Victorious!

Laura was just standing around when the professor spoke, hold onto something well what was there, she quickly held onto the first thing she could, she didn't know what it was, then she closed her eyes waiting to see what happened.

*blinks*

Laura quickly opened her eyes and sighed. "PROFESSOR WERE DOOMED, DOOMED I TELL YOU!" Laura was scared now she was in space, though she could breath this was weird, she was going to have to avoid these things or at least catch one but first where was she, was she still at Hogwarts or was she actually in space.

Post #1 -Feel free to be the person she crashes into

Safety gear put on, gloves securely on her hands and stuff she cared about safely put away in the box thingy Lex was ready!!!!

She listened eagerly to the Professor talk but really she wasn't getting very much of it. Nah. Her mind was going super fast at the thought of all they'd be getting to do. Her eyes widened at the sight of the falling blue and yellow lig--WAIT! Why couldn't there be red ones too? The Professor was being a rather cruddy Gryffindor at the moment. She would have pointed that out but 'cept she was busy being fascinated by them...maybe later....

Of course she was ready whenever the Professor was and the moment she felt herself floating she gave a little squeal.

This. Was. So. COOOOL!!!!

What made it even cooler was the change in scenery!!!!

Lex paddle waddled herself over to a section of the wall then kicked off toward a falling yellow 'star'.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Wait--no--person!!! EEK!!!!

The plus side of totally-purposely-crashing into a wall, was that she'd now have something to push against. Y'know, if it was needed. Which it probably would be, seen as Bliss was once again bobbing helplessly in the air. Great. She was definitely not going to catch any meteors at this rate. Perhaps if she held out her hand, one would just...land in it? It was possible. Of course.

Seriously though, she needed to think about this logically. ~~Bliss and logical. No mix.~~ She'd have to time this right. Perfectly right. She looked around the room, noting where things were and her eyes locked onto a yellow meteor. It was time. Bliss pressed one hand against the wall, bending her arms and tensing herself...and...GO! She pushed off the wall, her other hand outstretched and ready to catch the incoming meteor. But it flew past her and she sighed in dismay. Nevermind, she could try again. That was, if she could control her movement again.

Oh dear. Incoming projector.

Not again.

post 2 Anyone want to get hit?

Laura really needed to try and catch one of these things she was supposed to catch but she wasn't sure if she could do it, she was moving around better now but she wasn't sure if she couldn't avoid hitting people whilst she was this was really really scary and Laura wanted off this ride, it was like one of those scary theme park rides, not the ghost tower or haunted house but one of the other one.

Laura saw something coming towards her and went for it not seeing that something else was coming towards her from the opposite direction, who was it though she hoped they didn't mind being in a collision because she was going to crash into them where they liked it or not.

Crashed--stealing Lex // Post 1

SPOILER!!: letask

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie (Post 11302584)

Oooooooh blazing comets. Airey wasn't so sure that this was the best idea to allow someone as, um, fragile as Mr. Clark participate in this activity. It wasn't going to be too dangerous - nothing like what he had experienced in Care of Magical Creatures as a student - but still. "If you want to, Mr. Clark, by all means please do!" Because really, who was he to deny the man the opportunity to experience and feel astronomy with students?

He would just be keeping an extra eye on him to make sure that nothing went wrong.

Airey shook his head. "The meteors," he began, using air quotes around the word meteor as he spoke. "...will not be able to cause any serious injuries to you. They will be moving rather quickly bath and forth across the room in true 'shooting star' fashion, but if one were to hit you the worst that would happen is you would get a rather nasty looking bruise."

No broken bones. No hair on fire. No cracked ribs. Nothing life threatening. Just the sort of feeling one would get from whacking their knee really REALLY hard on the edge of a table.

"Precisely, Mr. Odessa," Airey replied with a slight eyebrow wiggle. No mist would be involved though. Heh.

Glancing at the sundial once more, Airey looked around at everyone to make sure all the students were suited up and had gloves. Seeing that everyone was prepared, he clapped his hands together a few times loudly to get their attention. "Alright alright, if everyone would listen up. In a few moments I will be removing gravity from this room and you all will be floating around freely," he said with a grin and a quick look towards Mr. Odessa again. "As you all can see, there are some meteors overhead shooting back and forth across the planetarium. Your task is to catch two of these, one blue and one yellow, using your baseball glove, one of each color. PLEASE do NOT use your bare hands or anything else besides the glove. They will not burn your hand, although they will feel warm to the touch, attempting to do so without a glove will cause your hand to be severely bruised." And as a worst case a dislocated shoulder perhaps, but he didn't mention that. "I will be walking around in case you need me." Literally.

Wand out, Airey summoned the lid for the box containing students' things and gave it a quick kick with his right foot to test and make sure that it was still stuck to the ground. Yep. Charm in place. All systems ready to launch. Turning his attention back to the students again, Airey couldn't help but smirk for a brief moment before giving his wand a rather elaborate wave overhead. "You all may want to hold on to something. Detravitas!"

Slowly, everything that had not been stuck to the floor with a Sticking Charm began to rise into the air - including students and even Professor Flamsteed himself as he had neglected to perform a Gripping Charm on his shoes earlier. Oops. Waving his arms and somehow managing to grab on to the protector to keep himself from floating too high, Airey gave his wand another flick and instantly the chairs and floor of the planetarium were gone and instead replaced with an image of the night sky, making it literally seem like everyone was floating in space - minus the zero oxygen bit. That would have been disastrous.

Blue and yellow streaks soon began to change their course, no longer just shooting back and forth horizontally across the room, but not also go up and down and diagonally and every which direction. Let the games begin!

"You have 40 minutes to complete this task! Good luck and may the force be with you!"

Now...to perform that Gripping Charm...

OOC: it should take you at LEAST 5 quality RP posts to complete this task and to be eligible for full participation marks. Remember, you are not weightless and floating around, so feel free to bump into walls, the projector, and other students as you accomplish this task. Injuries, should you choose for them to occur, should be MILD (IE no broken bones or lost teeth or near deaths).

You have approximately 48 hours from the time of this post to complete this portion of the lesson.

Any questions can be asked IC to Professor Flamsteed (just title your post with PROFESSOR HELP ME! or something to that regard so I can find it easily) or OOC to me via PM ^_^

HAVE FUN!

Amelia was a little scared at first when she heard what the task was. Fly around bump into people and catch a blue and a yellow meteor. Brilliant. So the minute she got flying something happened. Well, someone.

One minute she was reaching for a yellow meteoroid when something had made her shoot off the other direction. Turning to look at whoever it was that had ran into at that precarious moment she just frowned. Lex.

Really? Had to be her? Now she was soaring around without seeing where she was going.

EEP.

Projectors. Those did not feel good against your hip - she'd seen the people run into them before and quickly reached out her hands to steady herself. Pushing her hip off of the edge of the projector she skooted her way towards the meteoroids above her. Or where they below her? Floor being gone she couldn't rightly say.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awarlesta Black (Post 11302762)

Alex was trying to get closer to the meteorites...they were FAST, man...when he suddenly felt something hit his abdomen. OMG HE'D BEEN HIT! The meteorite had struck him! He probably broke a RIB!!

But then he realized that no, he hadn't been hit by a rogue meteor. His ribs weren't going to be broken. In fact he probably hadn't even been bruised. A younger Huffie had bumped in to him and was now freaking out and paddling away from him. What, did he bite or something? Gosh darnit, why did Sierra's bad attitude always make people think HE was like that too??

"It's ok!" he called before turning and looking back at the meteorites flying above him again. Alright, he was ready to do this...he paddled up and reached up with his glove to try and catch one of the blue ones going past but it just tipped his glove.

Reaction to announcement and Post #1

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie (Post 11302358)

Cue a pause for dramatic effect as he looked around the classroom and made eye contact with each student.

"HOWEVER! That is precisely what we are going to do!" WASN'T THIS EXCITING?!

With another wave of his wand, the lyrics to Catch a Falling Star vanished from over head and soon what could only be described as a meteor shower appeared in its place. Only there was something different about this shower as the streaks of light zooming across the room were two very distinct colors - blue and yellow.

Airey stood in front of the students with a smirk on his face that just seemed to get bigger and bigger with each passing moment. Heh. THIS was going to be fun.

"I would like you all now to, if you have not brought one yourself, to please grab a muggle baseball glove from this box," he said as he levitated a large cardboard box filled with gloves of all sizes for students to see. "When you have a glove I would like you to also put on this protective gear," he continued as he levitated another box with gear in each house's respective colors. "Once you have your glove and gear on please come and stand in front of the projector. Oh...you...um...you may want to use a Sticking Charm on your things, or if you are not confident in your Charms abilities you can put your things in this box and pick them up at the end of the lesson." Airey indicated an empty box to the right of the one containing all of the protective gear. "And no, we will not be playing baseball."

That was for Muggle Studies.

"So, hop to it!"

Eliza took down some notes about the differences in the words. She was still a little fuzzy on what a comet was, but she would save that for another day. All she needed to know now was stars were gas, meteoroids were big and in outer space, meteors were in the Earth's atmosphere, and meteorites were the ones that made it all the way to the ground. And now we're going to...WHAT?! CATCH THEM?!? She felt her eyes bug out and allowed them to dart to the other students in the room. It sounded fun and all, and the colors whizzing across the room were pretty, but catch them? Thoughtful as she was about the dangers and complications in attempting such a thing, a coward she was not.

The second year Ravenclaw marched her way up to the box of gear and gloves and tucked herself into the protective padding, pulling the straps tight. As for the sticking charm? Well, she didn't know that yet, but she hoped setting her things aside would be just fine. She then plucked a worn grey glove from the box, as she did not have any sporting equipment of her own, and awaited instructions with her game face on. Yes, her game face.

And then she was floating. This is amazing!!! she exclaimed inside her head. She felt a large grin spread across her face as she rotated through the air and watched the meteors shooting back and forth across the room. This was not going to be easy. She spun in her suspended state to see how the other students were approaching the meteors. She'd never really played baseball, but she thought if she could just observe for a few minutes she would get the hang of it. They sure are flying fast...I don't want to lose an arm trying to nab one, that's for sure!

She squinted her hazel eyes against the bright flashes of light and flinched a few times when a student looked like they might crash into her. Once she felt a little better prepared for the situation, she decided to propel herself upwards to give it a go. Time's a wastin'! she thought with one eye squeezed shut preemptively, and reached out her arm towards what she thought was a blue meteor's trajectory.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemon (Post 11302772)

His spinning was impeded by the Gryffindor queen holding on to his ankle, and Mo was fully cognizant of that fact as he hurtled toward the nearest wall. They were like some gigantic, hilarious, multi-house pinwheel, only this could not possibly be his fault and the professor better not even think of taking away points for it. What did he think would happen when a ball hit a glove at high speed like that?

They hit the wall and Mo sort of clung to the bricks for dear life. "I'm okay," he muttered to poor Alice, who hadn't deserved to get thrown against a wall just because Mo couldn't catch. He felt awful about that. "Are you hurt?" He tilted his head down to look at her and watched the meteor practically float into her glove.

OKAY NOT FAIR. Mo gave the remaining meteors a hard look, like he blamed them all personally for not flying into his glove immediately. He sort of DID blame them, actually. "C'mon, Your Highness. I gotta get me some meteors," Mo reached for Alice's hand until he was hanging upside down. This was... different. Not bad, but not... really very good either.

Post 2 // anyone can be the person she ran into

Okay she was slightly sore from being whalloped by a person and then a stupid projector and now she saw flying towards those meteoroids again. Maybe this time she'd catch one.

She was kind of floating in place with stupid meteoroids flying at her.

This. Was. Scarry. No. It wasn't scary it was freaking awesome!

Reaching out her gloved hand she tried to catch the first Yellow Meteroid that flew towards her but was a little too far off. She just frowned, and winced as something warm smacked into her hand.

METEROID! She'd caught a blue one!

The look of glee on her face even masked the embarassment when she went fltying into something soft, squishy, and obviously human.

Quote:

Originally Posted by McFeisty (Post 11302790)

There wasn't much Lex could do in the way of stopping herself. She tried everything but nothing stopped her from running right into Mika and apparently sending her flying around the room.

...

Oops...

"Are you Ooookaaaaay?" She called after her. The point of the class wasn't to go around hurting people so there would be no 'Good job Alexa!' if Mika ended up needing to see the Healer. In fact she'd be hearing quite the opposite. She tried waddle paddling over to her but that didn't seem to be working very well so she gave up and instead remained floating as she stared at her.

Suddenly there was a bright flash of yellow zipping right by her.

O__O

That was close!

Her eyes fell to the spot the 'star' had landed. Man. That one could've been hers! She needed to focus!! She WANTED one so she could charm it red!

Quote:

Originally Posted by McFeisty (Post 11302802)

She was reaching, reaching, reaching towards the blue meteor when OOMF!

Someone ran into her and caused her to somersault in the air. Once she was facing (what she thought was) right side up again, she readjusted her robes and saw that whomever the girl was that had run into her, had also grabbed the meteor Eliza had been trying to get.

Her face fell momentarily at the sight of her prize, glowing brightly from someone else's glove - but she wasn't one to hold grudges or be a poor sport. "Hey, nice catch!" she said with a nod at the girl's glove. "Any tips?" she asked as her gaze drifted off towards another cluster of speeding balls of light.

Alright you meteors, Ella Bishop is coming for you. At least...that was the plan. The blonde flailed her arms and legs in what she hoped was a swimming manner and willed herself forwards. Come on, you can do this! Oh and another thing? The blonde had a whole new respect for astronauts. She'd always thought it'd be cool to go into space and do some planet exploring but this, the being out of control in the air thing, it was kind of scary. Not to mention it was totally not working for her hair. Sigh. She was going to need some serious hair care time after this exercise.

Badgers weren't meant to flyyyy...we'd rather eat some pieeeee

Yes. Being up here also allowed Ella to do some serious song writing in her head. Merlin, was she talented at that or what?!?

Back to the meteors. The blonde couldn't really control where she was going so she shrugged the thought of direction off entirely and stuck her gloved hand out in front of her. *GRABBY HANDS*

Zooooom. Zooooooom. Zooooom.

"Gotcha!"

It was a blue one and it had zoomed right into her glove, causing her to close her fingers around it in a death grip. Yup, that thing wasn't going anywhere. Only...now that she had the meteor, where was she meant to store it. Blink. Had she missed that part?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo (Post 11302803)

Mika glanced over to her right when she heard Lex calling asking if she was alright. "I'm alright" she nodded - which was a bad idea as the movement caused her body to jet backwards into the wall.

Brilliant. She wasn't going to be alright for long.

"You want to work together?" She asked glancing over to Lex.

From what she could tell Mika looooked fine, meaning she either was...or was simply good at faking it. Either way, sympathy was shown and now she could move on to catching the fast little buggers.

She spun around, turning a few paces more than she intended and looked to the top of the planetarium where there was a seemingly endless supply of ~~not red~~ 'stars'. She threw her hands in the air and put on her 'prepared' face. "Okie dokes, just fall right here please." She said, patting one glove with the other. They could understand english couldn't they? If the portraits here could talk and the suits of armour could walk then she didn't see any reason why the 'stars' wouldn't be able to understand.

Lex floated like that for a bit, waiting.

and waiting...

then she waited somemore...

Yeah....this wasn't working. The Professor forgot to give the yellow and blue lights the little talk before class started. You know, the one that said they MUST fall into the hand of the students at there request--

WHOOOSH!

Oooo, lookit! She blinked a bit and stared at the blue 'star' light thingy that was now perched in her glove...so he did give them the speech! 50 Points to the Professor for thinking ahead and it just so happened that he was once a Gryffindor. Hint. HINT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin (Post 11302801)

Alice didn't like the wall, no. She didn't know if it was worse than helplessly drifting around like a stray balloon, though, so she didn't complain. "I'm fine. It could have been worse, yeah?" Much worse. She wasn't all that hurt, really. She was tough, didn't all Beaters have to be? The lioness would let Selina could take all the credit for her ruggedness. YES. Ruggedness. She had loads of it.

She almost laughed, though, at the look that he was giving the meteors. Alice tilted her head upward to stare at him quizzically. "Why're you glaring at the stars, Cactus? If you want one, you can have mine." Because she could catch three, of course. She was just that awesome, hadn't he noticed yet? The fourth year's faze froze a little bit as he reached for her hand, though. Vivi wouldn't be skeptical of that, would she? .. She could probably leave that out of the usual owls. Yes. She could do that.

So Alice took his hand, flailing and kicking over to another patch of meteors that seemed to be moving slowly enough for them to catch. "These. These look okay." OH. And that blue one.. yes, that one was hers. Mo could take his pick out of the rest. She kept a hold of his fingers while extending her arm toward the meteor, so that she wouldn't start spinning away and out of control again.

It wasn't helping, though, that for every inch closer she moved, the star moved an inch back. Stretch.

Belle heard the professor's directions. They were going to catch meteorites. This shall be fun. Belle was getting prepared when she felt herself float off the ground. The professor took away gravity?! WOAH! This was getting weird but fun! Belle was laughing with joy. This was going to be a fun lesson.

As Belle was floating on the ground, she had no control. She had to learn to swim through the air. She learned to turned right and left on contact. As she was trying to learn to manuvere around. As soon as she knew it, she was going to hit the wall....O__O. Bump. "OOOF!"

Belle rubbed her head. She felt stupid but she saw all her other classmates doing the same thing. Note to self Belle, Try to avoid the wall...All Belle knew what to do was to catch the blue and yellow stars. She saw them in her sights.

Getting Glove and Post 1

SPOILER!!: Professor

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie (Post 11302358)

"Very close, Miss Potter," Airey said with a nod. "You are on the right track with your thinking, but have some of the terminology mixed up." These things were a bit confusing, especially when all the words involved. "A meteorite is a particle of space debris, sand to boulder in size, that has not only entered the Earth's atmosphere, but it has reached the ground AND survived the impact. You could say that it has already 'graduated' from the colloquial 'shooting star' phase." Graduate being use very loosely and very metaphorically.

Dead stars. Oops. Maybe he shouldn't have use that quote on this one. Bad Airey.

"I'm afraid that no rocks will have come from stars." He had been hoping to save this next bit for at the end of his lesson, but it seemed as though the introduction was needed now. "Stars are made from approximately 73% hydrogen, 25% helium, and the remaining 2% being other elements. They are, in the most basic of terms, burning balls of gas. You won't find any rocks, but you can find matter. What happens when a star 'dies' is an entirely different process that I will touch on later in the lesson."

Ah yes, another good guess. "Many people have mistaken comets for 'shooting stars,'" Airey nodded he used air quotes again around the words shooting star. "In fact, the Greek scientist and philosopher Aristotle first described comets as 'stars with hair.' Good guess though, Mr. Keller." He would have gone into a little more detail now, but that would have given away the real answer.

STILL WATCHING YOU LIKE WOAH MISS FISCHER!

AHA! Here we go! "BINGO!" Airey said as he jumped up on to the platform again. He would have jumped on her desk, but he didn't trust her. She HAD lied to him about his suit and he was still debating in his head about proper punishment. "A meteor, yes! Or a meteoroid that has entered the Earth's atmosphere." Because those two were the same thing. And THIS is where things got a bit confusing.

But before he could go on to explain the elderly gentleman finally made his appearance. Sweet solstice, did they really have to send the old man all the way up here in a wheelchair?

Oh...wheelchair... Airey was going to have to charm that to the floor here in a bit. Probably the old man as well.

Giving the man a nod in greeting, Airey turned back to Miss Fischer and...lost his train of thought due to the distraction of the other observer making their appearance. What had he been talking about again? Or...where had he left off in his response to her?

Oh! Another hand. He would just move along to this student and hopefully come back around to whatever it was he was going to say next in response to Miss Fischer.

Oh, an answer he had not been expecting. "That is another possibility," Airey nodded, clearly impressed that someone so young knew about that term. "A bolide is an especially bright meteor and the term is synonymous with 'fireball' - which means a 'a meteor brighter than any of the planets.' However, in general bolide tends to refer to those that explode."

No need to thank him, really. It had been the boy that had excited Airey and brought up some good points with his song choice. "Very good," Airey nodded. "Although to be more specific, as well as to clarify, it is the---."

And he was distracted again by another hand being raised.

Oops. He had apparently hit a nerves with Miss Wisteria. He had been joking and somewhat teasing there, hadn't meant to offend or anything. Merlin was this one tricky and somewhat hard to read Hufflepuff.

"THIS! YES! THIS RIGHT HERE!" Airey said, clearly excited by the words of Miss Wisteria to the point that, yes, he jumped up on her desk and did a sort of happy dance there as well. "I hope you all were paying attention just now to what Miss Wisteria said." And had been taking notes.

"It is indeed," he grinned. Okay, so the Head Girl couldn't carry a tune, but she did seem to know a thing or two about astronomy. His eardrums somewhat forgave her. Somewhat.

"A comet IS a good guess, as I told Mr. Keller, but it is not the correct one," Airey replied with a reassuring nod. Oh, she wasn't done just yet. Ah yes, another victim of the confusing terminology. "A meteor, yes! And, as I explained to Miss Potter, a meteorite is a meteoroid that has landed on Earth."

Asteroids with a fire tail? Holy Orion did that bring up some rather unpleasant images in the astronomers head - not to mention some ideas for next term as well. These students were so inspirational!

Oh, look at that. Airey hadn't thought someone would make this connection - and he had momentarily forgotten about it himself - so the man was tickled pink."Impressive, Miss Black! Not the concept I was aiming for this lesson, but true none the less." He paused for a moment, off of Miss Wisteria's desk and back to the platform so that everyone could see him. "The most basic difference between an asteroid and the concepts we are focusing on today is location. You see, an asteroid is always going to be in space orbiting around the sun. There are tens of thousands of them grouped in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and if one were to break orbit and enter the Earth's atmosphere then it would become a meteor and if it were to hit the ground and survive the impact then it would become a meteorite. When an asteroid had become a meteor, it too is called a shooting star by laymen's terms." Was everyone following this? Yes? Follow up questions were always allowed should they have them. "Excellent thinking, Miss Black. Take 5 points."

Ah yes, the limper who had saved his lint roller. Airey gave her an approving nod with her answer, but wanted to clarify a few terms just to make sure everyone avoided confusion. "Very good, Miss Phillips. But we ought to avoid such simple terms as falling when describing meteors. Some would use that phrase to describe meteoroid approaching Earth. Instead I would rather you remember it as a 'they are called meteors when they enter the Earth's atmosphere.'" She wasn't wrong, but could easily confuse herself by over simplifying things. As for that bit about catching... "We will just have to see about that, Miss Phillips," he said with a knowing smirk as he moved on.

This Slytherin had been quiet the entire time, but that wasn't a bad thing. However, a smile did appear on the astronomer's face when he saw her hand up and when she offered up an answer to the best of her abilities. That a itself was a victory in his eyes, students becoming brave enough to venture a guess or ask questions. Yep yep! "As a very basic definition, precisely," he said with a smile and a nod. "But sometimes these can be chunks of ice as well, not just rock. And, contrary to pop culture's belief, they definitely don't hit the ground as a flaming fireball, the way you sometimes see it depicted in muggle movies." Which involved describing the entire process of what happened when a meteoroid entered the Earth's atmosphere, but he was going to touch on that a little bit later.

Airey couldn't help but chuckle at Mr. Odessa's logic. It reminded him of his own curious self at that age and, while flawed logic, the man could appreciate the boy's out of the box thinking. "As I said to Miss Black and the class earlier, the main difference is location, so yes, one could say that an asteroid is sort of a big meteoroid. However, as logical as your words may seem, I am sad to say that they do not exist. When an asteroid enters the Earth's atmosphere it becomes a meteor and if it makes impact with the ground it is a meteorite. Some people will say that it was a single asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs over 65 million years ago, but the more correct wording would be that a single meteorite impact that killed the dinosaurs." He gave the boy another nod. "I like your thinking though, Mr. Odessa. Take 2 points." Even if it hadn't been correct.

Oh yes! Meteor showers! "Those are in fact a part of the answer, yes," he grinned. Boy were students going to be excited at the end of the term - assuming his calculations and everything were correct. "Most meteor showers are caused by debris left by comets as they orbit the sun. As they do so, a comet will shed an icy, dusty debris stream along its orbit and if the Earth were to pass through that stream we would see a meteor shower. Of course, meteor showers can occur in other ways as well, but comet debris is the most common."

Was it just him or was Mr. Kinsley giving the professor odd looks? Was it something he had said? Hmm...perhaps he wasn't a fan of mythology?

After a quick 'you're welcome' and another grin, Airey nodded to the boy. "Yep yep, but to be more specific it is a meteoroid that has entered the Earth's atmosphere and this is also called a meteor."

.............

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Okay, Airey rather liked this somewhat innocent sounding answer and the best part was that it was not entirely incorrect - although not fully correct either. "In a sense, yes you could say that," he said while still chuckling a bit. "The important thing to remember is that what killed the dinosaurs, as I explained earlier, is a meteorite where as what is commonly referred to as a 'shooting star' is a meteoroid that has become a meteor because it has entered the Earth's atmosphere."

Hopefully students were beginning to understand the difference between the three terms. It was going to help them IMMENSELY with their homework if they did.

"I prefer the wording of 'a particle of debris in the Solar System that has entered the Earth's atmosphere,' but yes, you are correct Mr. Rush," Airey said with a cheerful nod towards the Head Boy.

*blink blink staaaaaaaaaaaaare blink blink*

Rocks on fire. Fiery rocks falling from the sky and something about not being able to take the heat. Yep, this Gryffindor was going to need a lot of extra protective gear during the activity, Airey could feel it. "I think you should reflect upon the response I gave Miss Somerlad." About this whole fire business.

Hits the Wrath? Airey was just going to assume that she meant Earth and had simply gotten too excited and had a small slip of the tongue. Nothing wrong with that. It was a rather fascinating and exciting subject! "Very good, Miss Paulidine. A meteor is the answer I was looking for." But there had been some other revelant answers as well. Hopefully everyone had been paying attention to those too, yes?

"Please keep up, Miss Hyde," Airey said with a slight eyebrow raise.

Another student that didn't seem to have a sense of humor. Sheesh, tough crowd? Or maybe it had been his wig comment from earlier that had put the Slytherin prefect in a foul mood? Note to self, no more wig comments to the girl. Or things about wishing on stars either.

"And you would be correct to agree with your classmates," he grinned with a nod.

"Yes, and no," Airey said with a nod. "What is referred to as a shooting star in laymen's terms is only a meteor. When a meteoroid is moving through space and has not entered the Earth's atmosphere it is not visible to the naked eye. Once it has, typically in the typically occur in the mesosphere, it creates a visible path and THAT visible path is what people refer to as a 'shooting star.'" See the difference? It was being a bit picky on the terminology, but it was an important distinction that he wanted students to walk away with from this lesson.

Hmmm, seemed as though Miss Lecium was choosing to sit this question out. As long as she was being an attentive listener he didn't mind at all. Just hopefully he hadn't lost the Hufflepuff prefect with all these concepts and terms. It could be a little confusing.

These kids...really liked fire, didn't they? Should he be concerned? "Funny you should also mention fire, Mr. Barrington." Seemed like he couldn't avoid this explanation anymore. "What happens when a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, and becomes a meteor, is that the outside of it begins to heat up. This forms something call the "fusion crust" on the meteorite when it eventually hits the ground - if it does so. The hot outside on the meteor begins to ablate, or strip off, which actually removes heat so by the time they reach the ground, at least with larger rocks, only the outside part has time to be heated and there is certainly no flame." Which he had said earlier.

Well, Miss Sparks was certainly feeling the music and this brought a smile to Airey's face. Always nice to find a fellow music lover. "Close, Miss Sparks. A meteorite is what we call a piece of space debris that has already fallen through the Earth's atmosphere and has hit the ground and survived the impact of doing so." She had been paying attention to everyone else, yes? No need to go into the difference between a meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite again, right?

"Nothing so-called about it," Airey said with a wink. Yes, he was sort of getting fresh with the wording of students, but science did sort of demand that one be such. "A meteor is indeed what a 'shooting star' is."

Oh look at this! Did this mean that Airey had been forgiven for the lint roller incident? The boy had somewhat looked like a kicked cruppy after the initial blow, but had come back to provide a rather brilliant answer.

Too bad there was punishment yet to come. Ahem.

"Excellent, Mr. Branxton. Very good. I mentioned earlier that a difference between asteroids and meteoroids was location, but size also comes into play as well. Anything smaller than 1 mile across is considered a meteoroid and anything larger is an asteroid. Both become meteors when they enter the Earth's atmosphere." And yes, meteor was correct, but that went without saying now, yes?

Space....junk. *twitch* Yes, that was correct, but junk was just...such a mean word. Wasn't it? Debris took some of the sting out of things. "You are correct, Miss Potter," he nodded. "And what you have just described is what we call a meteor, very good." Just no one remember it as junk, alright?

Airey nodded at the girl's response - although he found himself sort of blinking and staring a few times as she seemed to be speaking in tongues at certain points, but there was one small issue. "While all true, Miss Edwards, I am afraid you did not tell me at which point these terms refer to a 'shooting star,'" he said with a kind smile. Defining terms was perfectly fine, but he was trying to get students to apply them as well. Not just memorize.

Oh yes, another fantastic answer and then some. "Very good, Mr. Greingoth." Hey, wait... was he related to the Slytherin prefect who seemed to have her wand in a permanent knot? Interesting. Very interesting. But not the point. "Dinosaurs aside, for now, you are correct. Meteors is just the answer I was looking for. Just be sure you haven't blended the meanings of a meteor and a meteorite." Since he had talked about impacts and all that. Not that Airey doubted this Hufflepuff. He seemed to know what he was talking about.

Seemed as though Miss Greenwell too was going the listening route as well. He offered the Gryffindor an encouraging smile and then proceeded to the next student.

Erm. Right. "Don't feel as though you have to say something, Miss Cambridge," he said with a kind shake of the head. "If you knew the answer to everything then myself and your other professors would be out of jobs. Listening and taking notes is another form of participation." Chuckling a bit, he moved on to the next student.

At least he knew of one student in his lessons with a ~~odd~~ sense of humor like himself.

Oh. Oops? This Hufflepuff looked like a kicked cruppy now and it was clearly all his fault. What was it he had said? Or perhaps she was one of those children who had fully believed in the notion of 'shooting stars'? Just call him bubble bursting Airey?

"It is alright to not know the answer, just as I told Miss Cambridge a moment ago," he said as he gave the girl an encouraging smile.

Maybe that is why she was looking so sad? Because she hadn't known the answer? Maybe he wasn't a bubble burster?

Airey nodded. "Comets, as I told Mr. Keller earlier, are something else that people will call a shooting star. However, to clarify a bit more, a comet is a bunch of ice and rock whereas a 'shooting star' is basically just a small rock flying through the atmosphere really fast. A comet is much larger than a 'shooting star' and is also much farther away. Likewise, a comet can be seen for weeks and months at a time, whereas a 'shooting star' is seen for a fraction of a second." And there were some other differences as well, but that was enough for now.

This Ravenclaw...amused Airey very much - flatulent question aside that is. Ah yes, the heat and fire answer. He had gone into much detail on that with some other students, but while he was here... "When space debris first enters the Earth's atmosphere it would probably be unwise to touch it, but not just because of the surface head but also due to the speed." Can we all say snap off one's arm or perhaps make hole in one's body? "However, astronomers have a hard time getting good statistics on which fallen space debris are hot or cold as there really aren't very many that are picked up directly after impact. However, many astronomers believe that small meteorites should be barely warm, or even cool when they hit the ground. The temperature probably varies depending on the size and composition of the original rock."

Yes. No. Yes. Wait.

Airey took a moment to think about what the Hufflepuff prefect had just answered and smiled faintly. Another victim of all the words sounding and looking the same! "Meteor showers can be involved," he nodded before going on to clarify for the boy. "A 'shooting star' is first a meteoroid floating in space then then enters the Earth's atmosphere and becomes a meteor. This is when it creates a visible path across the night sky and is what people call a 'shooting star' or a 'falling star.' A meteorite is essentially the final step and is when a meteor has hit the ground and survived the impact." Did that clear things up for him?

"Very good, Miss Ella," he grinned at the Hufflepuff. "Just be sure to include 'entering the Earth's atmosphere' somewhere in that description and you are spot on."

Oh yes, very good! Airey did another little dance as he walked by Miss Castell and gave her a quick grin. "Very good, Miss Castell." She seemed to be just as excited as he was. Brilliant!

Shooting stars aren’t literally stars, yes?

Yep, that is what Airey had said earlier, hence the discussion, so he gave the boy an encouraging nod for him to go on. "Very good, Mr. Mordred," he nodded - again, students not giving him last names meant a Mr or Miss in front of your first name. Heh. "A 'shooting star' is indeed a meteoroid that has entered the Earth's atmosphere and, as you said, is what we call a meteor." Good good. This boy was following.

Another quiet student. Airey gave the young Slytherin a small smile and a nod before moving on to the last few students with their hands raised. Perhaps this one would find the courage to participate with a different question and hopefully she would find the activity fun.

Which he needed to get to soon... Just a few more hands...

"Almost," Airey said with a smile and a nod. She was on the right track, which was good. "A meteorite is when a piece of space debris has entered the Earth's atmosphere and hit the ground. The answer I was looking for was a meteor, which is the stage before the space debris hits the Earth and has simply entered the Earth's atmosphere which creates a visible trail in the sky." Okay? All clear? Or had he confused her further?

Oh? Miss Nessie was remaining silent for this question? She didn't seem the most, erm, passionate about the subject, so perhaps she was sitting in her seat silently judging him? Either that, or maybe she was just silently contemplating an answer? Either way, he paused for a moment in front of her to see if her hand went up, but when it didn't he moved on to the next student who did have theirs.

"And you would be correct in your thinking, Miss Campbell," he replied with a wink.

Looks like there was just one more hand raised...

Airey grinned back at the Ravenclaw boy - one that almost seemed sane compared to the other boys in this lesson. Yep, cue a quick glance towards Mr. Did-you-just-fart.

"Excellently put, Mr. Vindictus. Exactly."

Looking around the planetarium for any other hands that may be raised before checking his sundial again. Yep, it was time to move on.

"Very good all of you! While other relevant astronomical bodies where also mentioned, the one I was looking for was a meteor. Just to recap a bit. What people refer to as a shooting star begins its existence as a meteoroid which is a solid object, space debris moving in interplanetary space that is less than 1 mile in size. It becomes a meteor when it has entered the Earth's atmosphere and creates a visible path of the meteoroid across the sky and lasts about a fraction of a second. This visible path is what is referred to as a shooting or falling star." He paused for a moment to allow students to catch up with their notes and to let all this sink in. "A meteoroid that has passed through the Earth's atmosphere and made it all the way to the ground, surviving the impact, is called a meteorite. Many of your classmates brought up meteor showers. These are when many meteors appear seconds or minutes apart and seem to originate from the same fixed point in the sky." And it just so happened that there would be a surprise for them all at the end of the term. Best not mention that now though seeing as he needed students to be alert for this activity. "So, shooting or falling stars are not real stars at all. Stars are made up of gases, as I explained to Miss Potter earlier." Bits of information that would become very VERY important here in a moment. "Shooting or falling stars are essentially just small rocks flying through the atmosphere really fast. As Miss Phillips mentioned, in relation to the song I assume, one probably does not want to actually try and catch them."

Cue a pause for dramatic effect as he looked around the classroom and made eye contact with each student.

"HOWEVER! That is precisely what we are going to do!" WASN'T THIS EXCITING?!

With another wave of his wand, the lyrics to Catch a Falling Star vanished from over head and soon what could only be described as a meteor shower appeared in its place. Only there was something different about this shower as the streaks of light zooming across the room were two very distinct colors - blue and yellow.

Airey stood in front of the students with a smirk on his face that just seemed to get bigger and bigger with each passing moment. Heh. THIS was going to be fun.

"I would like you all now to, if you have not brought one yourself, to please grab a muggle baseball glove from this box," he said as he levitated a large cardboard box filled with gloves of all sizes for students to see. "When you have a glove I would like you to also put on this protective gear," he continued as he levitated another box with gear in each house's respective colors. "Once you have your glove and gear on please come and stand in front of the projector. Oh...you...um...you may want to use a Sticking Charm on your things, or if you are not confident in your Charms abilities you can put your things in this box and pick them up at the end of the lesson." Airey indicated an empty box to the right of the one containing all of the protective gear. "And no, we will not be playing baseball."

That was for Muggle Studies.

"So, hop to it!"

OOC: I am so sorry for the delay everyone! Two week old baby had a few fussy days along with a hospital appointment so those kept me away from all you lovely people *wibbles* Please RP your character grabbing the proper equipment and following Professor Flamsteed's instructions. Activity instructions will be posted in a few hours.

EDIT :: once instructions for the activity have been posted there will be no more catch up posts accepted for credit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie (Post 11302584)

OOC: it should take you at LEAST 5 quality RP posts to complete this task and to be eligible for full participation marks. Remember, you are not weightless and floating around, so feel free to bump into walls, the projector, and other students as you accomplish this task. Injuries, should you choose for them to occur, should be MILD (IE no broken bones or lost teeth or near deaths).

You have approximately 48 hours from the time of this post to complete this portion of the lesson.

Any questions can be asked IC to Professor Flamsteed (just title your post with PROFESSOR HELP ME! or something to that regard so I can find it easily) or OOC to me via PM ^_^

HAVE FUN!

Minerva listened as he explained that it wasn't a comet that he was actually talking about, but it wasn't a horrible guess either so that made her happy. Then she listened as he talked about what was going on. Oh.. a baseball glove, if she would have known she could have brought her's to school. Well if she actually knew where it was, it had been a long time since she had seen that glove.

When they were allowed Minerva got up and got a glove. Putting it on she smiled as it fit perfect. Heading back to her seat she was about to sit back down when he said to hold onto something. Before she could even turn to know what was going on, Minerva started floating in the air. What was going on.. She turned seeing everyone else. Oh this was interesting. Floating around was weird, but fun. Now what were they doing again. Oh yes looking for meteors. Minerva looked up and saw them flying over her head. This was going to be so much fun.

Quote:

Originally Posted by McFeisty (Post 11302814)

Lex looked up from her glowing new 'star' buddy when she heard Mika's voice. She grinned over at the girl who had also caught one. "SURE! It'd be more fun that way!! And eeep! We both caught blue!!!" Blue was an awesome colour, OKAY?

This time she was a bit more successful in her paddle waddling and managed to get close enough to the girl. "I didn't even do much, it understands me." Why else would it just fall into her hands like that? Coincidence? Snort. Yeah right. Lex was the pseudo!star whisperer and it would do them all good to remember that!

Another falling star caught her attention. This one was only inches away from her as it fell.

"Merlin, did you see that??" It made her grip on the blue star tighten...for all the knew the stars were friends and one of them was trying to create a diversion so the little blue guy could escape.

Not. Gonna. Happen.

Sherman & Oakey & anyone else who wants/needs a swimming Airey

Airey was trying to keep himself from floating off into the middle of the classroom where he would be stranded due to a lack of forward momentum - these kids remembered Newton's laws from last term, yeah? - he turned his head when he heard Mr. Clark address him. Eye wide, the astronomy pushed off the projector and went shooting across the planetarium and towards the old man that was clinging to his wheelchair. "Mr. Clark, are you alright? It might be easier if you didn't have that with you," he offered with a slight wiggle of his wand. He was weightless now, so he didn't really NEED the wheelchair per say. "I can easily have it stick to the ground for you." And then Mr. Clark could experience the sensation of walking in air.

Speaking of which, he still needed to perform a Gripping Charm on his shoes...

But then there came the cry of a certain Hufflepuff who, in the brief time Airey had interacted with him, seemed to be quite accident prone - which explained why the elderly woman with him at the auction had been to enthusiastic about winning that Liquid Luck for the boy. "Mr. Gunter, are you alri---"

*SMACK*

Mid-sentence, one of the blue meteors came crashing into the man, causing him to spin around and around and around in the air as if he were doing cartwheels. While making him somewhat sick to his stomach, Airey's thoughts were elsewhere.

"My suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuit!"