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What was Alice on about? Mika thought as she cocked her head and stared over at the girl – a dumbfounded look of bewilderment on her face. And maybe her jaw might have dropped open a bit too. She just, was shocked. SO shocked. Raising her own hand to give her guess – which wasn’t a guess. She knew what it was. ”Professor, that is a golden Sextant – even if from here it looks a little brassy but that could be because someone used the wrong kind of polish…or its more of a red gold and not a platinum gold.” She nodded, yep, random tangent on the exact shade of gold done. ”The Sextant’s predecessor the Octant was developed by two men a John Hadley and Tomas Godfrey – a man named…John feathers..beaks…Bird! John Bird Developed the sextant in the year 1757” what she was going from memory and kind of obsessed with random people of history. |
Wait a minute..... West was late, too?! Well, that was odd. And that was much more interesting to her than Little Miss Minister's Daughter. Blah blah blah life is unfair blah. Plus, Sky's eyes were definitely rolling. "Wah, wah boohoo, Princess," she muttered when the girls story was finally over. Oops, had that been outloud? Not that she really cared about that. Could they get back to Astronomy now? She had seen that object before. On tv. It was like Kettleburn had said. Though, she didn't know the exact name, so she just sat there. Glaring at a certain someone, she stayed silent. |
A shadow of a smile crossed his face for being right, Forrest didn't smile fully. Smiles were distracting and he didn't want any distraction at this class. Well, he didn't know the cool name of the object like others did, but he could still describe it yeah? Hand in the air, he said "It measures the angle between two objects." Or so it liked it. Shrug. Was that even in the book? |
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Laura listed to the question and then raised her hand. "That's a Sextant Professor smiled. "You use it to measure the Angle between two visible objects." Laura was enjoying this lesson, though she wished there was ice-cream around. "the octant and then the Sextant replaced the Davis quadrant as the main instrument for navigation." Laura smiled, she had read that somewhere. |
catching up - this class should so be a comedy show on TV SPOILER!!: pixie1 Sarah really should read up on it. She thought back to discoveries on Poloris that she had read on the library that happened during that time. Was he the one that discovered Polaris' twin star? SPOILER!!: sweetpinkpixie OOH. She was right. Then there was another fact... awesomeness! Sarah though that she could also make discoveries like that if she had a telescope that spell was too scary to use as it required drops at the end of each session. Those Goblins had no heart, especially as they ruined education. Silly goblins. Rude Goblins. Sarah looked up at the picture and raised her hand,, "thats a sextant" she said that word really fast as she did not want to sound like she was swearing. "It is used to measure the angle between two visible objects. As you probably want to know its relation to Polaris, at night one uses polaris to find out their latitude, of course this only works in the Northen Hemiphere." Sarah had read all that in the encylopedia when she was trying to look up other stuff. |
Had he been surprised when the Professor had jumped on his desk after he had answered the question right? Not really. He had been when he saw how he simply jumped from one desk to another... Instead of saying an answer , the Slytherin had decided to take out his note book and make some notes. If this was coming on the NEWT exam he would need it desperately. When the object was revealed, Daichi stared at it with a blank expression on his face. He had no idea what it was... Not answering the question again he listened to his fellow students and came to the conclusion that the object was a sextant. Biting down on his lower lip, he tried not to giggle. I'm sorry but who called an object THAT?! |
mention of a touz in here as well Well duh, Tobias obviously didn't know. He didn't know any of the answers in this class (other than 'yes' to frozen dairy goods). He was mainly here for the fun activity which called for comfortable shoes. And to learn too, actually. Yes... that was probably important. Tobias' attention was briefly caught, however, by the Gryffindor girl who'd come in late. At first Tobias had just glanced around when she'd walked in, but now his attention was truly caught as she told her story. He kind of stared with wide eyes, 'cause if she was the Minister's daughter then that made her like a celebrity and Tobias had never met a wizarding celebrity before. So yeah... that was impressive if it was true. Because 'who is the Minister' was among the many things Tobias did not know sooooooo... he'd just take her word for it. When the Hufflepuff looked back at the Professor to see what he was holding up, his attention was drawn away yet again by the Gryffindor and her exuberance and he let out a giggle this time, which he quickly stifled by clapping his hand over his mouth. He wasn't laughing AT her... it was just... cheerfulness by osmosis? Giving himself a moment or two to kind of refocus, Tobias raised his hand. That thing looked kiiiiiiiiiiiind of familiar to things he'd seen before. He was probably wrong, but hey... worth a try. "It looks kinda steampunk." |
Kat saw the two thumbs up and offered the Astronomy Professor a thumbs up with one hand, while the other continued to scribble notes on her parchment. Listening AND attentive, 'tis all. Once she had caught up with the information the class shared, Kat set that aside and looked up. Oh, she knew what that was. She raised her hand up. "That's a sextant." Like what everybody said. You know, going along with the crowd cos she was tried of being quiet now. She needed to recite as well. It's used to measure angles and stuff... like that thing Muggles use in measuring Math stuff. Whatever. But that's it. |
people and stuff Ella might have been pouting at Airey. Or trying, at least. She loved his enthusiasm and everything but the man still wasn't forgiven for dangling ice cream infront of her and then crushing her dreams. #Dramatic Anyway, she was trying to think of other things that distracted her from ice cream thoughts. Things like Alec and nice hair and gummy worms and... A sextant. The blonde mulled that over as she watched West Odessa come in late. Huh. He was a bit tall to be properly stealth but he did move quietly, she'd give him that. She looked over at Anya, wondering if she was watching as well cause of spyventures and stuff. Ella couldn't help but watch for spy skills. Yes, even at sixteen. Anyways...back to the sextant. Ella had heard of those and knew what they were about basically but she was inclined to agree with the Minister's daughter about the pirate thing. It totally had a pirate feel to it, it did. "Professor, it's a sextant like everyone else said. It's all about reflected light and angles and stuff." See? Ella was highly scientifical. |
This just got more confusing. Polaris was three stars and not one? Ummm...wow. Okay...could they not just name each star a different thing? Or maybe not...because maybe it was easier to remember one name of three completely different ones. Here she just needed to remember. Polaris, Polaris B and Polaris Ab. Okay not too bad then, but scribbles for sure. Gold object, yeep Ness knew what that was. Sextant, like West who seemed quite late had said. But nope, no words for Flamsteed because what was the point of repeating others, now? |
Text Cut: Professor She kept listening and nodding. Also taking general notes, it helps making sure remembering what happened in class since most of the information was new to her. Though then she stopped and just watched and paid attention. Especially to the picture. When the Professor brought the tool. Cassia kept staring and staring knowing that she had seen this thing before but failed to remember the name. "It's a tool," Which was obvious but she wasn't done. "To measure angles....For Astronomy purposes." Or that what she knew. |
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And it seemed like her mother forgot something on the list of can'ts. Should have also added something about not being late for lessons. "Miss Kettleburn, being the Minister's daughter will not excuse you from my classroom rules," he said while balancing on the balls of his feet. "That will be 5 points from Gryffindor for your tardiness." He wouldn't have the man himself coming and knocking on his office door now, would he?! "And yes, pirates DID use this device for navigational purposes." Quote:
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And now he was craving ice cream covered in nutella. Ice cream.... Airey stood there for a few moments thinking about ice cream before he brought himself back to the lesson. Not too long, mind you, but just long enough to perhaps make people feel slightly confused. But moving along. "As many of you stated, this is indeed a sextant. Sextants are used to measure the angle of elevation of a celestial object relative to the horizon. The celestial object used for reference is typically the sun, but Polaris can also be used as a point of reference at night." You know, when the sun is gone. "By using the angle of elevation of Polaris and the time of day, one can calculate the degree of latitude. There are many other uses of a sextant, but we will be focusing on this one today." Airey then banished the posters on the board and revealed a new moving one. SPOILER!!: moving poster "If you will please look at this while I demonstrate how to use this," he said as he nodded. "Remember, we will not be using the sun as our point of reference but Polaris." He then turned to the side and looked out one of the windows so students could see what he was doing more easily. "Now, what a sextant essentially does is merges two views. One view is of the sky, through the mirrors. The other view is of the horizon," he explained as he moved in accordance with the poster. "Assuming that we are at the North Pole now, my sextant should read 0 degrees. To find my latitude, all I need to do is simple math." And there was another flick towards the board. Quote:
Alright. Disclaimer done. Time to get up and moving. "What I would like you all to do now is to come up here and take a sextant from this box. Before I let you run around outside of the classroom, I want you to practice finding your latitude here and record your findings on a piece of parchment. You will first need to find Polaris using the methods discussed last lesson. Once you have done so you may use this poster as a reference for how to use your sextant." By now they all should be rather proficient in finding Polaris, so he was not too concerned there. It was using a sextant that could be tricky at first. "You may work with your friends or individually. If there are no questions you may begin. I will give you about 15 minutes to practice before we move on." OOC: you should have at least 2 posts for this activity. 1 post should be finding Polaris & 1 post should be using the sextant to measure the angle of elevation and calculate your latitude. OF COURSE you can make up these numbers. Yay for magical interference, yes? ^_^ I would be oh so helpful to me if you would title your posts with post #1 and so on. Of course, if you have any questions you can direct those IC to Professor Flamsteed or OOC to me via PM or VM. I will post sometime tomorrow GMT+9 with instructions to the next activity. |
Post 1 (Ella) Laura didn't want to do this on her own and so she decided she would look around for someone who she could do it with, she saw her bestie Ella and smiled maybe they could work together. "Ella want to work with me?" Laura hoped that she did because it had been really long since they had partnered in class, it would have been awesome if Sophie and Carigan was there, then all four of the fantastic four could work together. Laura looked around and smiled, she was going to find Polaris, even if she had to go to the North Pole and find it herself, seriously if she went to the North Pole would she be able to see a big star like the North Star shining bright, it would be cool if she could. |
Post 1 Lex glanced over briefly at Zahra, they'd just lost a Minister's daughter and now they had another. It was like...tradition. Definitely. But back to the Professor and the thing that wasn't a compass. Even he admitted it was shiny so she got half the answer right. Good enough for her. Once he was through explaining, she hopped up and grabbed a sextant. It was pretty neat that their location would keep changing. No telling what reading she'd get. First, finding polaris. She got to a spot where she could see the clearly enough then went looking for Ursa minor. That was probably the easiest way to go about it, wasn't it? THERE!!! Over theeeeeeeeeere!!!! She wasn't about to go bouncing around, but only because of that one kid that chose to stand right next to her. Seriously kid, you're in her range of sugar hyperactivity, mooooove. Pfft, fine, stay. She'd found polaris anyway and could now try the sextant reading thingy. |
Post 1. Well, yea. Dylan seemed to have been right on track with his thoughts, then. How awesome would it have been to make your own telescope? He'd never done anything like that...Blasted goblins. He loathed those....creatures. Also, they were going to use Oculo Focalis again? Maaaaaan...That charm made his eyes itchy. It wasn't too bad...but uncomfortable. Kinda like that buzzer zapping from the seminar. What a disappointment that had been... "A sextant, sir.....Kinda looks like a funky protractor." Protractors were American things, he knew..."It measures angles because stars. Well, the books says 'Celestial bodies', actually..."......if the Slytherin recalled right. ... Right. Moving towards the front of the room, Dylan took one of the sextants and then slowly made his way back to his seat. He needed parchment and a quill...Ink, too...Hmm...Getting all of his materials ready and whatnot, he withdrew his wand and pointed it at his eye, going through the motions for Oculo Focalis. Slight waves over the eye and TAP. As things quickly flew into HIGH DEF. focus, Dylan blinked several times....STILL not wholly used to the feeling of the charm. First thing he needed to do was find Polaris... Looking skyward, he found Ursa Minor and Major with absolutely no troubles. Lookit! Draco was right there, being all dragon-like...curling around the Little Dipper...and in the handle of the Little Dipper was Polaris!...Yep, it was there. Right at the tip of the handle... Blinking some more, he looked down at the sextant. Could he find a Ravenclaw to work with? Where was HIS Ravenclaw?! |
Post 1 and Laura Ella had just returned with her sextant and was organizing her notes and things when she heard Laura. "Hey, course we can." Work together, that is. Ella was pretty good at spotting Polaris by now but she had no idea how to use the sextant, even after the demonstration. She tended to learn better by doing anyway so experimentation was going to be the key, she guessed. The blonde then worked on her eyes, making sure they were sharp with the spell they'd learned. Couldn't hurt, yeah? Unless she used it for a long amount of time and such. "So we find Polaris first, yeah?" Looking up, the blonde tilted her head slightly and searched the skies. "There's the big dipper just there," She said, pointing it out to Laura. And if she just followed the pointer stars she'd see..."Ah-ha. Found it." Did Laura see it too? |
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She threw her head back and looked up. Where was that north star? It would be much more comfotable if they were allowed to lie back on their backs? No,she could not find it well without the spell that they had learnt the previous lesson. She had to do it then.... Sh preformed the spell and now could see poloris perfectly. Good |
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Laura looked at the Sextant and just stared at it this was one weird things, she put the Sextant to her eye and then she put it in line with Polaris, now she had to work out the angle between two stars, what if she wanted to have fun a have two of the stars that was so far away from each other used. "I think we use it something like this?" Laura wasn't sure as she held the Sextant to her eye. "And then we have to find two points to put these arms to and then we measure the angle I think." Laura smiled at her best friend. |
Post #1 Noootes. Notes and EVEN more notes. Thats all this badger seemed to do during these lessons, but of course when there was nothing more to write Renesmee put down her quill and listened to the activity instructions. Pout. She sorta got the whole measuring thing, but she pulled a bit more faces as she didn't like it much. At least it wasn't something gross like most activities in Magical Creatures. Still it was just...not her thing. Oh well. She wouldn't complain....yet. First she grabbed a sextant, then she grabbed her parchment and quill. All in order she looked in the sky trying to find either one of the Ursa's or the Cassopeia and in no time she found the odd looking almost kite constellation and in no time she found the polaris at the minors tail. Right where it usually was. Now could she get to the whole confusing bit with the sextant? |
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Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? THAT was why he asked? So he could take points? That wasn't CONCERN that was CONNERY. Or something. She squinted HARD at PROF man. "So you're telling me.... I lost points 'cause I told the truth? Mann...." MAN. As it turned out, losing points *WAS* on the list from her mum. She was already FAILING as MoM KID. "What if I told you," Zahra GOT UP to go get her pirate tool, "that a band of ... goblins.... held me hostage and that's why i was really late? They told me not to tell though, so I didn't, and if that were the case, do you think it could just be 3 points instead of 5? 2 if I told you they were NINJA goblins?" Just asking. Now for proper pirate TOOLING. Cool. Cool. ...now what were they looking for? Zahra used her to look at the Whomping Willow and Merlin-only-knew-what-else. She'd pretend she saw Uranus. haha. HAHA. |
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Post 2 How was this thing meant to work? She held it and just stared at it for a while. Now that she'd found Polaris...what was she meant to do with it. Professor Airey said it wasn't a weapon so that ruled out half the uses she could think of. Hmmm... She watched someone else using it and tried her best to imitate them. There was clamping and releasing and that kid still standing too close to her. SIGH. Maybe he just wanted to know how to use it? She shrugged and kept trying until she figured it out. For now the sextant seemed to be saying something about 45 so that's the number she would go with. This almost felt like Arithmancy but she would never compare the two. One of them gave her headaches...the other just gave....false hope of ice-cream. Come to think about it...that headache was starting to sound better and better. :mellow: SPOILER!!: Parchment Yup. Done. |
Post 1 For the first time in his life, Forrest thought he didn't miss A THING the Professor had said that wasn't related to football. And that was actually such a success, and showed how much he LOVED Professor Airey. He just hoped the man saw it in his face or something too, that he was really trying his best not to be distracted in this very distracting environment. He enjoyed the class too. It taught him stuff he didn't know before. He still didn't know where he would be able to use this knowledge, but it was cool. Now, the task at hand. Ain't nobody got time for fancy wandwork to spot Polaris, so he just used the mortal's way: Ursa minor and major was there, and soon enough he saw the big dipper. A second later... Polaris! Cue BIG smile. |
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Laura looked at the work that Ella showed her and smiled. "I think it's just about right." Laura looked through the sextant I have this though. SPOILER!!: work Yeah Laura wanted to be bang on, she was hoping that Ella didn't mind her writing down what she saw on a fresh piece of paper of course just in case she was a little bit wrong. |
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