Constellations?

Daichi looked up from his near sleepy state because THIS was something he did like. Well, he thought he would like. Aaaanyways... He shot his hand in to the air and waved it to get the Professor's attention.

"Oh, oh! i know one! Lupus is a constellation as well. I read during my OWL studies that they aren't the brightest stars and something about men...AND your last name was mentioned as well Professor!"

*BEAMS*!

That was funny right?! he thought it was..hehehe

The second year smiled proud now that she had answered something right and was now even more motivated to do her best. She looked at the two charts and… Yes, she recognized the ‘W’ from Cassiopeia and now that she looked closer she also found the other constellations, but recognizing them was all she was able to… She listened to the next question but… she didn’t knew the answer, she even didn’t had a guess! She had NEVER read anything about this and if she even had heard about this, she wasn’t remembering it now at the moment…

The young girl kept her mouth shut, she KNEW that if she would try to answer it would be wrong, so why would she made a fool of herself? She wanted to know this, she wanted to be good at this lesson, but this was something she couldn’t knew! She was a second year and she didn’t remembered that she had learned this during her first year… Sonea looked around her and wondered if there were some second years like she who knew the right answer, and if they knew it, she wondered where they had learned it…

... Well that was a lot of information.

Sccribble... scribble... scribble...

Alec's head shot up to look at the board when he heard a tapping. Oh... HEY! Diagrams! He sat back in his seat and tapped the end of his quill against his chin while Flamsteed talked. The diagrams were useful. Could he copy those down too? Just for reference and all that? And who knows, it might be useful information to know if they needed to find the true North Star. ... Maybe.

Okay... constellations... constellations that can be found in December time... "Professor?" he said, raising his hand in the air, "There's one called Perseus! Which... translates to the Hero, I think. Just like the person in legends it was named after...?" He... didn't know.

"Auriga's visible in December, I think, professor," Alice voiced, hand up. She wasn't taking notes because she was writing everything down mentally, see? But she actually paid attention in this class, mostly due to Airey's little outbursts of professor enthusiasm, and his whole little lecture had stuck in her head. All information registered. She was pretty sure she could recite that whole bit about Gamma Cephei verbatim.

Constellations, though. Auriga. And yeah.

BEAMS So even in her horrible mood there was one thing that could always bring it back around. two if you count Ethan Praise from a professor was something that she lived for and the fact that she was getting praise at the moment for her extra work she had been doing.

Next question.. Oh Constellations! They had learned about these before. She wasn't sure if it was the positive praise or if she was just finally becoming focused but Minerva hot her hand up so fast she almost bounced out of her seat. " Professor.. We learned about this once before, I remember that Fornax is a December constellation, but oh wait I think that is southern." still bouncing a bit she bit her lip and tried to think, "Oh..oh there is Eridanus.. I think that is a north one.."

Even after she had answered Min's mood had obviously changed and now she just kind of fidgeted in her seat, not a bored fidget, but just a can't sit still and need to move around fidget.

Marigold thought a bit before remembering one.

"Professor, isn't there a hero one? Perseus or something?"

....

Er....

Lex sunk down in her seat a bit. Would the Professor mind very much that she didn't know an answer to offer in this situation? Naturally, she knew what the sky looked like at night but she never made a habit of looking up and learning the names of the constellations especially with them changing from month to month.

So she sat, trying to be as invisible as possible and scribbled down the names of constellations as they were being given by her classmates.

How did they even know these? Something told her a few of the mentioned constellations were in the textbook but that's where the problem started...she'd never bothered to read that thing so...yeah, that would have been a major problem.

Scribble. Scribble.

For now, this worked.

Unsure if someone else had already said her answer or not, Eliza said hers quietly after she raised her hand. "Professor, Hydras is visible in December. The water snake," she put her hand down, but then she had a thought. "Erm, Professor? Why isn't the Sagittarius constellation visible in December? Since...it's related to December birthdays?" Not saying the actual word astrology out loud. Nope, never. But it was a valid question, she thought.

Oh, he knew this one, especially because Mo and West had used Cassiopeia last term in making their own asterism. His face fell for a moment before Mo's hand shot in the air. No reason to think on that with anything other than fondness or whatever. Right?

"What about Cepheus, Professor? It actually falls between Cassiopeia and the Little Dipper." And had once been part of a lovely asterism that looked like a Bludger and bat.

Blink.

All this excitement from the Professor was doing his head in. So, rubbing at his face some, Dylan sat up a bit straighter in his seat...shrugging. "Sir, it's religious significance...Am I allowed to talk about that here?" There was an extremely curious look on his face as he asked that question...

...but to answer the more recent inquiry..."One of the Zodiac constellations, Aries? 'Arietis' is it's proper name, I think." He knew because he'd just made all those Zodiac cups for Professor Elwood...Serious study had went into their making...

Sitting near the back of the classroom, Jo scribbled down some notes in her notebook as fellow students raised their hands to answer the Professor's questions. When the Professor began speaking again, she placed her pen on the desk next to her journal, rested her chin on her right hand, and just listened. Merlin. This class had seemed rather fast-paced for the tired Slytherin but Jojo didn't mind the pace too much because she found the subject, Astronomy, so intriguing... One day, she hoped to venture out into space, and if the muggle technology was good enough, and see the stars herself. When she was seven, Jo had a constellation poster on the top of her ceiling in her bedroom. Before heading to sleep each night, she would spend hours just gazing at the constellations as she wondered what creatures or substances could possibly exist in those areas of space.

As the Professor asked the class to name other constellations that they would expect to find out near Polaris. The blonde Snake pursed her lips as she tried to recall the poster of constellations. Of course, there was Cassiopeia, Ursa Minor, and Ursa Major but what else was there? She felt as if one of the other constellations (other than Cassiopeia) near Polaris began with C.. Camelpolaris? Camelopolaris? Camelopodalis? she thought. No, no, that didn't sound familiar at all.

All of a sudden, her eyes widened with realization. Aha! Camelopardalis! That was the name of it. But now the question was whether or not this constellation was close to Polaris. She began to doubt herself again.

Finally taking a risk, she raised her hand and decided to be vocal in the class for once. "I'm not sure whether this answer is correct but I do believe that Camelopardalis is near Polaris. Camelopardalis sort of looks like a girraffe and is usually seen near December 4th or 5th.. " said Jo with a nervous grin. Yep, she didn't feel confident about that answer at all.

Oh well....

And there went all of his classmates. Off to the races with all of the answers that he felt like only google had the capacity to know. He had his strengths when he went to Muggle school, he understood that. English being one of them along with history and math and stuff, but like all of this RANDOM stuff that everyone knew. It was almost google worthy.

Huh. Did Hogwarts have wifi around here? Did wizards even KNOW about wifi?

Puzzling questions.

...

SO Ascanius completely disregarded his question, the sparkly!glitter!Professor!man, and asked a question of his own, "Professor? Does the castle have wifi reception?" It would explain the GPS question he had from earlier. Huh. And with that, he leaned back in his seat and waited. Well, c'mon. He didn't have all day, guy. Answer the question.

There was a slight snort when Professor Flamsteed responded to Melanie. Only because it was Peter Pan and you had to wish on the star and keep going straight on to somewhere…she didn’t really remember, and then he was responding to her. And wait, was Professor Flamsteed’s eye twitching? It was…and he was looming and not sounding nice…she flinched a bit because – well, nerves? AND well…Astrology RIGHT he hated that word…he seemed peeved.

No! She thought, her eyes widening as she almost began to laugh…because really, made Airey was almost funny – ya know – eye twitching…looming…the eye twitching was the best part of it though.

Raising her hand. ”Professor, the constellation Draco is nearby I do believe” what it was a common name too – so yeah. That was an interesting thing. Why were so many wizards named after actual constellations?

Name a constellation seen in December now. She could do that...maybe. She had to sit and think for a few minutes though, so she kept her hand down while some other students answered. The answers jogged her memory a bit but also distracted her quite a bit too. Because you always realize some answers were obvious answer you'd known after someone else gave them, y'know? And then she had trouble thinking of something that hadn't been said already because all she could think about were those mentioned. But finally, eventually, Penelope thought she had one. She could be mistaken though, but no harm in trying, yeah?

"Is Aquarius one?" she asked/answered after raising her hand.

Checking his sundial for a moment to give the students some time to think, he looked up and leaned over to the side a bit to glance out the window at tonight's visibility. Good good, clear skies it was! He just wished that students still had their telescopes to use. No matter. He was sure they would enjoy using the charm he had up his suit sleeves just as much.

And now it was back to the students whose hands were popping up all over the classroom.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

Mo got a nod and then the professor got his undivided attention.

That was all a lot to take in and West closed his eyes, mentally mapping stars up there and such. Oh constellations were fun. He stuck his hand up. "Equuleus off to the West." And a tiiiiiny bit West-South-Westish of Polaris, but West of where they were. He could SEE it in his minds eye.

Heh. To the West.

"Equuleus, also known as the Little Horse, yes, very good Mr. Odessa!" he replied while giving the blackboard a tap with his wand to make the words appear there to start a running list.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

"Oooo..... I know which star is the brightest in the sky!" Since, you know, no one had answered it yet. And also, sky. *beam* "It's the sun. In fact, it's so bright, they say that if you stare directly at it, you'll go eventually go blind." Now for the current question. "Capricorn is visible this time of year." Hopefully she wasn't about to get in trouble for that answer, since it was also used in a certain other topic the professor hated....

"Very GOOD," he replied as he gave the girl two thumbs up. "The sun IS the brightest star in our sky. So bright, in fact, that when it has risen, its light is so bright that it drowns out all other stars and makes it appear as though they are not there. All constellations are there year round, but not always visible at night." Did that make sense to them? He hoped it did because he was getting way too excited about everything.

"Capricorn, also knows as Capricornus, YES! You can see that constellation tonight if you look a bit south."

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheeseStrings

So she raised her hand to answer. "The Hunter, Professor? It's portrayed like a person shooting an arrow with a bow. And it's shooting another star, isn't it?"

"Good, Miss O'Hara! The Hunter, or Orion as I prefer to call it, can indeed be found if one were to look east."

Quote:

Originally Posted by xXxPandora

The constellations surrounding the Polaris. Three were already mentioned. She had one in mind. "There's the Draco constellation, Professor." Was it south from the Polaris? Err.....she wasn't sure. "It's named as such because its stars form a dragon and it is one of five circumpolar constellations in the Northern hemisphere."

"STELLAR, Miss Castell!" he grinned as the word Draco appeared on the board in its own little category before he hurried over to her desk and JUMPED on it. "Miss Castell raised a very important concept that I want you all to pay attention to! In our sky there are five circumpolar constellations. These constellations are important because they circle around the celestial pole, Polaris, and never set or fall bellow the horizon line. They will always move in counter clockwise motions around Polaris and will always be visible at night provided no obstacles get in the way. Know these constellations well."

He flicked his wand towards the board to include three more in that list that he had already mentioned - being Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and Cassiopeia. He had to wonder if anyone would bring up the fifth and final one in their answer...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

Laura looked at the Professor an raised her hand. "Professor maybe there is the Little Bear." Laura wasn't sure about this question but it was better than her other guess, she was thinking about Woody, well they did name them after famous things right but she thought that would have been too easy so chose something Little Bear instead.

Small pause as he jumped off the Ravenclaw prefect's desk. "Yes, Little Bear is another name for Ursa Minor that we have already discussed." So no maybe about that on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Princesspower

Sarah raised her hand, "I read somewhere that a star called the Gamma Cephei is going to be the next north star, as it is closest to the north pole. Yet getting back to the topic, wouldn't Taurus be present as it is in the sky from November to March?" Just a thought, Sarah did not know where in its travels of the sky it was now.

He nodded. Yep. Just as he had said. "Indeed it would be," he grinned as Taurus appeared on the ever growing list.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meizzner

Well it appeared that he did not know the planet Trenzalore. But that was probably because it does not existed outside of fiction. Nigel shrugs then answers.

"Trenzalore is a planet that has a battlefield graveyard and the tomb of the Doctor. Also no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, while on the planet. Though inside the tomb was not a body, but an entity that contained the Doctor's personal time tunnel from Gallifrey to Trenzalore."

Well that is enough about Trenzalore. So know back to his question about constellations."There is the Corona Borealis". Though Nigel was not sure if that was visible in December.

Ravenclaw say what? Who was the Doctor? Airey was an astronomer. A professor. Not a doctor dangit Jim. So Airey was just going to stand here and stare at Mr. Barrington long enough to hopefully make the boy uncomfortable so he could reflect on what he had done.

"Right you are." About the constellation. Now...whatever it was he had just said about the other thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Jory laughed at Professor Airey and his wiggly eyebrows. The man was funny. "Er...I think it's Sirius? Or it could be the Sun.'' he said. Which one was it? Te Puffer didn't know for sure.

Complicated charts but Jory tried to follow as best as he could. They were fascinating. He raised his hand. "Professor, Orion will be visible in December.'' He liked that name. Orion. It reminded him of the cat in Men in Black 3 that was named Orion.

"Correct! When it comes to the night sky, the star Sirius is the brightest," he nodded. Thumbs up to you, Mr. Stonewall. "Yes it will be." Just as Miss O'Hara had said earlier. Hufflepuffs. They did always seem to stick together.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

Constellation talk?

Ella smiled a little. She absently looked up and let her green eyes search for Little Treyen star. Was he up there and shining brightly right now? She hoped so. Anyway, back to the question. "Professor, I believe Cetus is one. It represents a sea monster or something." And sea monsters were cool. Scary cool.

"Very good, Miss Ella," he nodded with another flick of the wand. "Nowadays people refer to it as the whale rather than a sea monster. I personally prefer sea monster, however." He paused for a moment to tap his wand over his eyelids, utter an incantation, and then peered out at the night sky. "And you are all in luck tonight! Seems as though Pluto will be making it's appearance near this constellation."

Poor Pluto.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hpfan18

"Professor i know the constellation Pegasus can be seen in October which is when i saw it, well my grandfather pointed it out."

Yup that is all he knew and he liked the other student's answers as well. He still continued to take notes and sketch the diagrams the professor put on the board.

"Very good, Mr. Lecium! Pegasus can indeed be seen tonight as well." And on to the list it went.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CassiopeiaAKTF

"Oh, oh! i know one! Lupus is a constellation as well. I read during my OWL studies that they aren't the brightest stars and something about men...AND your last name was mentioned as well Professor!"

*BEAMS*!

That was funny right?! he thought it was..hehehe

"Lupus is indeed a constellation. Unfortunately it will not be visible for us tonight. Lupus is best seen in the Northern Hemisphere in June." So try checking the skies again then.

His last name was mentioned in his reading? Heh. He wondered if Mr. Katharos had put the pieces of that puzzle together. "John Flamsteed I assume, yes?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonea

The young girl kept her mouth shut, she KNEW that if she would try to answer it would be wrong, so why would she made a fool of herself? She wanted to know this, she wanted to be good at this lesson, but this was something she couldn’t knew! She was a second year and she didn’t remembered that she had learned this during her first year… Sonea looked around her and wondered if there were some second years like she who knew the right answer, and if they knew it, she wondered where they had learned it…

Silence but diligent note taking from the first year snake. Airey gave her an encouraging nod before moving on to the next student with their hand raised.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hermionesclone

Okay... constellations... constellations that can be found in December time... "Professor?" he said, raising his hand in the air, "There's one called Perseus! Which... translates to the Hero, I think. Just like the person in legends it was named after...?" He... didn't know.

"Perseus, yes, very good Mr. Summers," he nodded as it was added to the list.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemon

"Auriga's visible in December, I think, professor," Alice voiced, hand up. She wasn't taking notes because she was writing everything down mentally, see? But she actually paid attention in this class, mostly due to Airey's little outbursts of professor enthusiasm, and his whole little lecture had stuck in her head. All information registered. She was pretty sure she could recite that whole bit about Gamma Cephei verbatim.

Constellations, though. Auriga. And yeah.

Airey grinned. He had to admit that he was very impressed by students and their extensive knowledge of constellations - especially for some of the lesser known ones like the one Miss Fischer had just shared. "Very good, Miss Fischer."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bazinga

Next question.. Oh Constellations! They had learned about these before. She wasn't sure if it was the positive praise or if she was just finally becoming focused but Minerva hot her hand up so fast she almost bounced out of her seat. " Professor.. We learned about this once before, I remember that Fornax is a December constellation, but oh wait I think that is southern." still bouncing a bit she bit her lip and tried to think, "Oh..oh there is Eridanus.. I think that is a north one.."

"Fornax is indeed visible in December...but in the Southern Hemisphere," he corrected gently. Although she had already essentially corrected herself so there was nothing to worry about there. "However, you may be able to catch a glimpse of a part of it tonight if you look south enough." So he would add it to the list just in case. "Eridanus, however, you will be able to see perfectly fine."

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScarletCharm104

Marigold thought a bit before remembering one.

"Professor, isn't there a hero one? Perseus or something?"

"There is," he winked while pointing to the board. See? Right there on the list.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

....

Er....

Lex sunk down in her seat a bit. Would the Professor mind very much that she didn't know an answer to offer in this situation? Naturally, she knew what the sky looked like at night but she never made a habit of looking up and learning the names of the constellations especially with them changing from month to month.

So she sat, trying to be as invisible as possible and scribbled down the names of constellations as they were being given by her classmates.

How did they even know these? Something told her a few of the mentioned constellations were in the textbook but that's where the problem started...she'd never bothered to read that thing so...yeah, that would have been a major problem.

Scribble. Scribble.

For now, this worked.

He was actually rather disappointed that he had no reply from Miss Cambridge. But seeing how busy and diligent she was being taking her notes made up for it. Slightly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DecemberMoon

Unsure if someone else had already said her answer or not, Eliza said hers quietly after she raised her hand. "Professor, Hydras is visible in December. The water snake," she put her hand down, but then she had a thought. "Erm, Professor? Why isn't the Sagittarius constellation visible in December? Since...it's related to December birthdays?" Not saying the actual word astrology out loud. Nope, never. But it was a valid question, she thought.

This one....was confusing the noble art of Astronomy with Astrology. He could feel his blood boiling and his eyes narrowed for a moment as most of his happiness was zapped from him. Astrology, the entire concept, was like a dementor to the man.

"Because that has little to do with real science," he said while trying to avoid using the word truth in there. Although she was lucky that the Zodiac was actually extremely important to historical astronomy."Sagittarius is is high in the daylight sky late December early January, but just not visible at night due to the earth's rotation. However, it is during this time that the Sun passes through the constellation and why it is still relevant."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Oh, he knew this one, especially because Mo and West had used Cassiopeia last term in making their own asterism. His face fell for a moment before Mo's hand shot in the air. No reason to think on that with anything other than fondness or whatever. Right?

"What about Cepheus, Professor? It actually falls between Cassiopeia and the Little Dipper." And had once been part of a lovely asterism that looked like a Bludger and bat.

"Excellent, Mr. Branxton," he nodded. Up on the list the constellation went!

Quote:

Originally Posted by THE Govoni

Blink.

All this excitement from the Professor was doing his head in. So, rubbing at his face some, Dylan sat up a bit straighter in his seat...shrugging. "Sir, it's religious significance...Am I allowed to talk about that here?" There was an extremely curious look on his face as he asked that question...

...but to answer the more recent inquiry..."One of the Zodiac constellations, Aries? 'Arietis' is it's proper name, I think." He knew because he'd just made all those Zodiac cups for Professor Elwood...Serious study had went into their making...

"Oh, no, best not discuss that here," he said with a small shake of the head. He preferred to keep that talk out of the classroom - as did his colleagues. Of course it already seemed as though the Slytherin captain was aware of this policy. Airey had rather been hoping it had held some other significance, however. Pity.

"Aries, yes, very good."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emms

As the Professor asked the class to name other constellations that they would expect to find out near Polaris. The blonde Snake pursed her lips as she tried to recall the poster of constellations. Of course, there was Cassiopeia, Ursa Minor, and Ursa Major but what else was there? She felt as if one of the other constellations (other than Cassiopeia) near Polaris began with C.. Camelpolaris? Camelopolaris? Camelopodalis? she thought. No, no, that didn't sound familiar at all.

All of a sudden, her eyes widened with realization. Aha! Camelopardalis! That was the name of it. But now the question was whether or not this constellation was close to Polaris. She began to doubt herself again.

Finally taking a risk, she raised her hand and decided to be vocal in the class for once. "I'm not sure whether this answer is correct but I do believe that Camelopardalis is near Polaris. Camelopardalis sort of looks like a girraffe and is usually seen near December 4th or 5th.. " said Jo with a nervous grin. Yep, she didn't feel confident about that answer at all.

Oh well....

Airey's eyes LIT up and his smile could hardly be contained by his face. "Camelopardalis! YES! VERY GOOD! Very good indeed." It was a personal favorite of his due to the dates, or date rather, that the young Slytherin had mentioned. "Very good, Miss Goyle!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by fanficfanatict

SO Ascanius completely disregarded his question, the sparkly!glitter!Professor!man, and asked a question of his own, "Professor? Does the castle have wifi reception?" It would explain the GPS question he had from earlier. Huh. And with that, he leaned back in his seat and waited. Well, c'mon. He didn't have all day, guy. Answer the question.

And his good mood from the she-snake's answer was just dementor-ed away by this one. Had he not been paying attention to the lesson why he had explicitly said that muggle things would not work here? Not to mention wifi had little to do with the question he had just asked.

Airey's brow twitched in agitation. "If you are going to look something up I suggest you use your textbook, Mr. Stark," he said while flicking his wand and levitating it in the boy's face to the constellation section. "Minus 5 points for not only wandering severely off topic, but for not paying attention in class."

Quote:

Originally Posted by McFeisty

Raising her hand. ”Professor, the constellation Draco is nearby I do believe” what it was a common name too – so yeah. That was an interesting thing. Why were so many wizards named after actual constellations?

"Draco is indeed visible this time of year," he said with a small nod, still obviously agitated by the previous boy and his off topic question.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlwaysSnapesGirl

"Is Aquarius one?" she asked/answered after raising her hand.

"It is! Very good, Miss Greenwell," he said, still not in the best of moods as her suggested constellation was added to the list.

Looking around to see if there were anymore hands in the air, which there were not, he stepped aside from the board and tapped it with his wand to draw attention to it. "I would like you all to now please take a look at the board. Please note that this list is by no means complete and there are still many constellations visible in tonight's sky that no one mentioned. I will add just a few more of those to the list."

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackboard

Visible Constellations in December
in the Northern Hemisphere

• Andromeda
• Aries
• Auriga
• Camelopardalis
• Capricorn
• Cetus
• Cepheus
• Corona Borealis
• Cygnus
• Equuleus
• Eridanus
• Fornax
• Hercules
• Lyra
• Pegasus
• Perseus
• Pisces
• Taurus

Five Circumpolar Constellations
in the Northern Hemisphere

• Ursa Major
• Ursa Minor
• Draco
• Cassiopeia
• Cepheus

"One constellation in particular that was not mentioned but I would like you to remember is Cepheus. It is the fifth constellation of the five circumpolar constellations and named after Cepheus, King of Aethiopia in Greek mythology."

Turning to look at the board for a moment to look over the list, he gave it a reaffirming nod and then turned back to the class. "Now, as we have already discussed, Polaris is our indicator for north. Once you have spotted it you need only go in a clockwise fashion and use one of my personal favorite mnemonics to find the other directions. The mnemonic goes 'Never Eat Soggy Waffles' and represents North, South, East, and West. Therefore, in theory, once you have found Polaris you can now find all the other directions and therefor navigate the world without a map in your hands." And hopefully not get lost.

Alright. Enough talk and theory. Time to get down to the good stuff.

"We will spend the rest of the lesson doing just that, finding Polaris and its surrounding constellations and a few other celestial bodies." Like planets. "However, to do so I had intended on you all using telescopes as some of the planets and constellations may be very hard to see with the naked eye. Unfortunately....those were repossessed recently by goblins, so we are going to have to go with plan B." WHICH WAS SO MUCH MORE LEGENDARY THAN TELESCOPES.

"Older students may be familiar with the Telescope Focusing Charm, Lens Focalis. We will be using a variation of that charm today..." Pause for effect. "On our own eyes." Pretty cool, huh? "The wand movement is the same, a simple swish followed by a tap on your closed eyelids. The incantation is Oculo Focalis. First years and those who are uncomfortable with charmswork should not be worried. You will not harm your eyesight by not performing the spell properly." So breathe kids. Breeeeeeeeathe. "One word of caution. Extended use of this spell WILL cause tiredness and red eyes. Sort of think of how one looks after not sleeping properly. Bags under the eyes is also a common side effect."

The professor then tapped his desk and summoned a stack of posters from the drawer when he then levitated around the classroom.

SPOILER!!: the poster

"You may work alone or with a partner to practice the charm. What I want you to do first is to test your eyesight using this muggle eye chart. Place the poster on the wall and then stand back various distances to test how well you can see and then attempt the charm to see if there is a difference. Once you all have gotten the hang of things we will move on to looking at actual stars. You may begin."

OOC: Just as Professor Flamsteed said, you can do this activity alone or pair up with someone else. For full credit you should have a minimum of 3 posts. Remember that this charm will not cause any serious eye damage. Your character MAY experience a slight burning sensation or tiredness in the eyes, but nothing too extreme.

Please number your posts to make it easier for me. Pretty please with a cherry on top?

I will hopefully post the second part of the activity tomorrow morning GMT+9 before I have to take my little man to the hospital for his shots, but you will still be allowed to continue this activity if you have not completed it so don't worry

Whoa, whoa there....calm your comets, Flamsteed. Jumping on her desk. Seriously? Merlin, he was so weird but he gave her a STELLAR so he's forgiven....and she wasn't going to tell him off for being on top of her desk.

Taking note of the board, yep...and scribbling some important points too, even the 'Never Eat Soggy Waffles' one.

And then he was telling them of what tonight's activity was going to be. Blink. They were going to locate the Polaris and the surrounding constellations.....with their naked eyes! Whoa. Just whoa....Oculo Focalis. Yes, that was loads cool, Professor! She was getting really excited now. Imagine, they won't be needing telescopes with this new charm they were learning tonight. Not that she wasn't upset that the telescopes were taken, but this charm was just too helpful.

Tiredness, red eyes, eye bags...side effects. She better keep an eye on her Ravenclaws and make sure they don't use the charm excessively once they've mastered it. No need for bloodshot eyes among the eagles, mhmm.

"Oh. A Snellen eye chart." She grinned at the Professor approvingly. He was so fond of muggle things, was he not? And they were to measure their visual acuity first, yes? Eagerly, Beezus went ahead and put up the chart on the wall, one that was on a flat surface. Hold on...his instructions were just to stand back in varying distance, take note of which row they read and then try the charm on and compare if it actually enhances a person's lens' focus. They weren't going to use the chart the way it was properly used like in the muggle world? Beezus raised her hand, "So, sir....we aren't going to measure twenty feet and stand on that spot to measure our visual acuity one eye at a time? From what I know, that is how to use that muggle eye chart." ....All up to him. He was the man in this class.

She was just merely wondering.

Lens Focalis. Oculo Focalis. One for lenses and the other for eyes. Natalie suppose that 'Oculo' means 'eye', so she quickly jot the stuff down before she forget. But she realised that she could be wrong, so she raised her hand up to ask. "Professor, since 'Lens Focalis' is a spell for lens, and 'Oculo Focalis' is a spell for eyes, does 'Oculo' mean 'eye'?" Besides, Nat never actually took up Latin when she was enrolled to the Muggle school in her hometown, and it's better to ask than to walk blindly towards a pool of lava.

After that, she took a poster and placed it on her small section of the wall. The poster weren't very hard to read, except for the most bottom line when the distance between her and the poster was around six metres. She keep going back and back, occasionally looking back to avoid colliding into another student or something. When she could not read the 5th line, she went back to her desk to take her wand.

"Who wants to be my partner?" Laura really really really really wanted a partner, "Come on guys I have ice-cream for anyone that wants to be my partner." Laura thought that it would be awesome to have a partner, she didn't think that she could do anything on her own

"Please someone be my partner." Laura decided that she wanted to have a partner to work with after all two heads were better than one right, she was sure that someone would want to be her partner.

The second year Slytherin sat immediately upright in her chair when professor Flamsteed told everybody what the right answers were, she took her quill in her hand and started writing, but everything the professor told the class was… strange… She realized that she really had not known the right answer to this question. It was a good thing that she didn’t had tried to give a answer, she would have said something what had nothing to do with… this… The young girl shrugged, it didn’t mattered, she knew now the answers and when she was back in her common room she would re-read everything to make sure that she had learned it.

No telescopes? Oh, this was sounding interesting! She had never done this spell, but it didn’t sounded dangerous, and if all the symptoms were so simple then there was no reason why she didn’t would to try it! The second year old girl pushed her rat, Little princess deeper in her pocket to prevent that her rat would ran away from her and pointed her wand at her own eyes, “Oculo Focalis” said Sonea while she *hoped* that the spell would work.

......Constellations in December? oooh right..he must have dozed off at that part. But not anymore! He was going to pay attention like a hawk! "Oops, sorry professor!" he chuckled. Actually, he didn't even feel THAT sorry, he thought it was more funny. But atleast he had PART of the question right by saying that Lupus was a constellation.

John Flamsteed... Daichi frowned deeply as he tried to think back about what he had read over and over for his studies. "I think so..." he answered slowly and then it hit him. With a loud GASP! the Slytherin looked at the professor with twinkling eyes and even pointed to him almost hyperly. "You're his great-great-great-great?" how many greats were there? "Grandson?!"

THAT WAS SO COOL! And he demanded a bowl of that icecream he had in his office now! Icecream..in the winter..YAY!

Tiredness, red eyes, bags under his eyes if he got the spell wrong? PFFFT! Way ahead of you Flamsteed! Because the Slytherin already had those boxes checked before coming here.

Testing time! He got up from his seat and quickly grabbed a muggle eye staring chart... He sticked it to the wall and did a few steps backwards was about to read the chart when...


Someone mentioned icecream. He didn't know why but he was seriously craving for it and well, the hufflepuff did mention she would give some... sooooo... Daichi speed walked to the girl and grinned from ear to ear.

"I can be your partner~" now where was that icecream?!

Sarah’s way of knowing the directions was first taught to her by her grandmother. It was Never Eat Silk Worms, yet in school it was Never Eat Sally Williams. Sally Williams was a girl in her class that was very sweets.

It was a pity that the telescopes were gone, yet at least it afforded Sarah the opportunity to practice the spell. First she needed to do the general eye things

She put the poster against the wall and walked backwards until the last line was not visible. It was strnge, normally she could never see the line above it at that distance. She then felt for her face and laughed, she was wearing her glasses that was why it was so clear! She took off her glasses and clutched them in her hand and looked ahead. No, her eyesight had not improve and she could barely see! The smallest line she could read was line four (line eight and nine she never even saw all it was a white blur then) and line five she could see yet not very clearly.

Lex copied off the extra constellations as they were given. She thought to study these but then...what were the odds he'd ask for constellations in December in another class they had? There were 11 other months. It seemed pointless. Scribbling them down for later reference was good enough.

Now the Professor had her full and undivided attention, plus she'd participate for the rest of the class!--So long as he didn't ask anymore questions that she wasn't likely to know the answer to.

....

No. Way.

A spell they'd be using on their eyes to make them like telescopes!!! COOOOOOL!!!!! Two years ago she would have protested GREATLY to something like this, two years ago her wand and her were at odds, granted they still were once they were outside of DADA class but that was getting better! THIS WOULD BE EPIC!!! And here she found another good thing coming out of the Goblin visits. No crystal balls for Divination so they got to practise other cool stuff, taking gems when the goblin wasn't looking and getting richer and now THIS!!!!

Lex hopped out of her seat, grabbed a poster then stuck it to the wall. Her vision was good though, or so she was told. Let's seeeee.

No answering. But listening? Yeeep bceause it was entertaining. With her usual pout the Hufflepuff remained as silent as a mouse and just listened and watched as the lesson progressed. She took down a few notes here and there but really all those constellation names not a chance she'd ever remember them all. Odd names sooo nooope she didn't intend on learning them by heart. But she did intend pretending she knew what they were when she looked up in the sky. Yep. Totally normal she was.

Eyes as telescopes. Hmmm...yeah she was okay with that and the spell didn't seem difficult anyways. By now she was able to learn spells quicker than before and clearly her skills at Hogwarts had improved over the years.

So first testing her eyes then?

Renesmee walked over to a wall and stuck her charm with a quick sticking charm. She then took a step back and read what she could, which was everything and quite easily. Another step back and she repeated the reading. It was the third step that become a little more difficult to read from but she managed and took even a fourth and fifth step back before she decided she had done enough testing.

Attempting the spell next it was. But of course practice first.

Jory copied down the lists Professor Airey had made, making a mental note to read on at least some of constellations. And then he shot a look at the man. On their eyes? He was concerned about the safety but the Professor assured them that it would be okay. But Jory had to admit, it sounded like fun! They were actually going to be telescopes. Human telescope. Hehe

Deciding that he would work alone, Jory grabbed one of the posters that was floating in mid air. "Looks like it's one of those charts from an eye doctor,'' he said to himself. He looked around for a spot to hang it. Oh look. There was a spot right next to where Alexa hung hers.

Feeling a bit disheartened Sarah took a few steps forward. After all, at least she could see without her glasses, and one did not usually have to read from that length anyway. It was like too far. Beside,no one had 20/20 vision anyway.

Sarah took a few steps forward yet before lookign at the sign she looked at those around her. No one had gone as far back as she did originally, so maybe she did not have such bad eyes and no one would be able to read line 6 from that distance. Now looking at head she could see much clearer. If she scrunched up her eyes in a certain way she could even read line 7!

Slowly she moved forward until she nearly on top of the poster, only the could she read line 9. Yes her eyesight was not that good, that was why she wore glasses. Now it was time for the spell.