Sophie smiled at professor Flamsteed's salute. She didn't quite understand what that had been for, but still, it had been nice of him! Hehehehe!

Ooooo, the man was a composer! Nice!! Sophie liked listening to music, even classical music, and that man looked like a classical composer. The Hufflepuff wondered if Mordred could play any of this Herschel's songs. He probably could. Mordred could do anything if he wanted. Yep.

But Sophie really had never heard of this Astronomer before. She felt behind and go slightly more nervous about her upcoming OWLs, especially after the professor mentioned those himself. Merlin, help her! She had TONS to study still, hadn't she? djkfnsjkfndsjkfsn Nuuuu! Why couldn't she just take Charms OWLs? She'd be happy with just those, really!

The badger's eyes were wide now and she made a mental note to start studying more ASAP. She needed self control and stop studying Charms only. MERLIN!!!

Laura looked at the Professor and raised her hand. "Professor, can I ask you a question, how come his son John got a knighthood for services to Science but I don't think he did sir, have you any idea why that would be?" Laura could only think that it was the fact he wasn't born in Britain but she wasn't sure.

Laura then went back to the question, she raised her hand again but this time it was because she had an answer. "Professor Polaris B was first noticed by William Herschel in 1780, he was the very first person to find out that there was two parts to Polaris." Laura smiled she was hoping she was right.

NEWTs? Yes what about that? Blink....this was going to be in that.

MERLIN WHERE WERE HER NOTES THEN?

Hastily the red head grabbed her quill and scribbled 'William Herschel' on a blank page. She then underlined it and wrote some more, like the fact that he was born in Germany but was actually British as well as the discoveries Airey mentioned.

Still no answer for the question though, because she didn't know that either. She didn't exactly spend her free time reading about Astronomy..she rather read love stories, or Nicolas Spark stories, those were way more interesting then reading about stars. PSHH.

Wait she would as well as scribble down later. Now all she did was put on a HUGE fish face and stared at Airey, waiting, waiting and waiting for more things to write.

The fourth-year sat looking at the hair trying to see it at different and not bad. Nope. She couldn't, it still was bad in her eyes. Though, she didn't say that out loud. Might be taken personal against astronauts? She had nothing against them. Except ones with bad hairstyles.

Then she tore her attention from the man and listened to all what was said. She scribbled down on her textbooks. Easy access notes, helps her revise more than having to find them all in the book. The book was huge! So at least she was doing something. She was taking notes. Because she didn't know what the German astronauts had discovered. Well, she knew about the two moons but that was said. She had no idea about his Polaris-related discovery.

She'll find out now. After students answered and after Professor Flamsteed corrected them and all.

No rush.

OWLs... NEWTs. Kat already took OWLs last term so... no biggy. She still had until next term for her NEWTs though. She didn't feel like having an early review of her six years of magical education. She could do that... next term, on her final year.

......... Well, thinking of that was sort of sad. She was going to be a seventh year soon. That sucks.

Anyway, the prefect saw no point of repeating answers again. Instead, she just took notes and copied all of the things the others said. Well, not exactly ALL. Some of them were saying... irrelevant and stuff Kat felt wasn't important. She left those back.

Still listening. Yep.

Glare.

What was he even LOOKING at. Flamstead could take his eyes and put them somewhere else besides his face because he was NOT keen on being looked at right now. Especially when his shoes were so heinous he couldn't even think properly. And that was this ruddy Professor's fault. Jerk face.

And no, he didn't know who this guy was so why would he even remotely know what he had accomplished? Because he didn't. That was why. It was like this whole school worked under the assumption that he knew everything. Smirk, well he knew EVERYTHING, but not EVERYTHING EVERYTHING. It was complicated.

So he continued to lean back and just GLARE at Flamstead.

Herschel? Hershey?

What the heck was Polaris? Had they covered that?

Or was it some kind of food? Because Hershey sounded mighty famili- WAIT.

JUST.

ONE.

MINUTE.

Hershey was a kind of chocolate, that was it! All these other people were just plain wrong and straight up saying words that Tobias didn't understand. So... so yeah that was probably something close? And they were totally learning about sweets in an astronomy lesson. After all hadn't they JUST been talking about ice cream? It was perfectly logical.

Tobias raised his hand. "Didn't Hershey have something to do with chocolate?"

Not very good chocolate... but chocolate nonetheless.

Dylan was slightly stunned when the suited man sprung up onto his desk. What even.......? He moved back slightly and just looked up. Staring, really. It was then decided that Professor Flamsteed's excitement was scarier than Professor Lafay's anger...because at least that was predictable. Yep. The Slytherin was making that call.

Anyway...

"Polaris' companion star.....which is just called Polaris B. He discovered it with a telescope that he made himself...which is rather impressive." They should build their own telescopes. At least that wouldn't have bored him to tears.

Listening as the class went on, "Chocolate? Did someone say chocolate!" His mouth was watering. Asher wanted nothing more than ice cream and chocolate. Wondering if he could find any answers in his book, Asher began flipping through the pages.

Marigold wanted ice cream. And she was glad the astronomy teacher wanted it too, even if he wouldn't let then have it.

Ohh... Herschel. She had read about him.

"Herschel was famous for discovering many double and multiple stars."

She was definitely getting ice cream after this.

Herschel, and Copernicus, and hair colours.

Of course.

Forrest nodded seriously once, and this wrong answer didn't diminish his enthusiasm, because he had read it ALL. So, after giving it a moment's thought to remember what he had read about Herschel, his hand shot in the air again.

"Multiple stars! He said it was a multiple star!" What multiple star was, Forrest had a vague idea. But Herschel and the book said so.

Mika had not known who the man in the powdered wig was. Heck, she didn't even know the reason people wore them. They just looked so, so itchy and uncomfortable. So they were learning more about Polaris today? She wondered unless today was a day that they would say dress up in powdered wigs and act like crazy 15th century people saying things like Well, I disagree with that statement young lass... and other ways of making yourself sound like an over grown snob.

She would be kind of ticked if today's lesson was a lesson in Snobbery.

SPOILER!!: Professor!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

"This man is no extraterrestrial," Airey chuckled. "Although his thinking and methods were out of this world for his time." Good humor there, young padawan.

"As some of you guess, this man is William Herschel. He was a German-born British astronomer, technical expert, and composer who is known for making many scientific breakthroughs in the field of astronomy. Among those are his discovery of the planet Uranus and its two major moons and the two moons of Saturn. He is also the first to discover infrared radiation and has 24 outstanding symphonies that I suggest you all listen to. Especially for those of you who will be studying for your OWLs and NEWTs. Helped me out quite a bit when I was a studying student." Just so they all knew.

"Now, Miss Phillips touched on something very important and relevant to our discussion of Polaris. Can anyone tell me what discovery Herschel made in regards to it?"

Yeah Kace would never EVER have guessed his name. At least he tried to put humor in his answer and he succeeded a tiny bit? Yeah he did. He beamed at the professor and chuckled at the professor's own humor then he continued with the lesson.

Now that Miss. Phillips touched upon the subject...whoever she was, Kace was wondering what discovery Herschel made in regards to Polaris. He really had no idea. But then again....he started to flip through his textbook. He found this subject interesting!

As he was searching he heard someone mention Hershey chocolate? Kace chuckled at that while flipping through pages and then came across something...."Professor i see that Herschel saw that Polaris had a companion named Polaris B. I do not know why he didn't give it a cooler name but that is just me. But i am glad it had some company."

It was really hard to read in this textbook but at least he managed to get the answer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

O___o

And...Ella had an Airey on her desk. The blonde nearly fell out of her chair but managed not to fall, instead looking up at the man with a startled smile. She'd rather have ice cream on her desk, y'know, Professor. She was still a bit cross about that.

Anyway, back to the Herschel dude. "Professor Airey? I think he was the guy that found Polaris' companion star. Erm...the one that revolves around it." Which was kind of nice, Polaris having a buddy and everything.

Would it be too much if he jumped back on Miss Ella's desk? He tried to limit his desk jumping to just once per lesson per student, but on the rare occasion students warranted a second jump. Ahem. He would try and refrain for now.

"OUTSTANDING," he beamed at the young Hufflepuff. "You are correct."

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemon

Oh! Oh, she knew what the guy did and who he was. Just not what he looked like.

Blaming the focus issues on ice cream, okay?

"Polaris B," Alice started, raising her hand to elaborate on her co-captain's excellent answer, "was discovered by him and it made it into a binary system. Or two star. Whichever. A third one was found and made it a triple star system, but this guy didn't figure that out."

She shot Ella a thumbs up and then went back to inspecting the professor's shoes.

Ah, but Miss Fischer had not had her desk jumped on yet so UP he went with another enthusiastic victory dance. "Excellent eeeeeeeeexcellent," he said with a wide grin. "It would be over 200 years after Herschel's discovery of Polaris B that the third star was discovered."

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

She would make an attempt, if only for the sake of getting to talk. "Was he the one that discovered that the star never moves but is a fixed point?" Someone had to have figured it out. Maybe it was him.

"No, but that is a good guess, Miss Cambridge," he replied with a nod towards the Gryffindor. "The notion of fixed stars date waaaay back to long before Herschel." She was demonstrating what she had learned about Polaris with her answer, which was good enough for him.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iBeJenn

Wait. And then he was talking about Anya's answer. Melanie had to think about that one. "Did he find a star that was attracted to Polaris? Like... Polaris's soul mate or something?" And did they get married? She wondered who officiated that ceremony. Everyone in attendance must've been so starstruck. And inner giggling because starstruck... star... struck... hehe. Yeah, no more inner giggling. Time to focus.

Ah, celestial romance. Perhaps he should do a lesson on the stars Vega and Altair sometime. Hmmm....the possibilities. "That is an....interesting spin on things, but yes, he did."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meizzner

O_O

Well. Somebody did not like Khan. From what Nigel read it was understandable. But Still. See a famous astronomer and maker of symphonies. Could not be that good if Nigel had never heard of him.

"He discovered Uranus."

Nigel said it correctly of course. He did not want to seem too immature.

It was a Funny word. If you don't say it correctly. Though he could not remember reading anything about Polaris.

Ah, awesome points to you young man for saying the name of the planet properly and maturely. Airey gave him an approving nod before responding. "Yes, but what does Uranus have to do with Polaris?" Since that had been the initial question.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Eye Touz

"Who did WHAT?" ......Zahra Kettleburn had fallen asleep after dinner. She was remarkably late, but better late than never? Perhaps she could have made a slightly more graceful entry - but WHAT? URANUS?

This twelve year ~ and First Daughter of Albert Kettleburn TADA ~ thought THAT was hilarious. Some things just can't be let go.

What on EARTH (...on EARTH? HAHAHA Astronomy...) was THIS class about? She wiped sleep out of her eyes, but was chuckling all the same, looking around for a seat.

STARE. Was this little Gryffindor laughing at astronomy? Never mind that she was late. Laughing at his subject was far worse. Well, laughing and comparing it to astrology really, but still. Laughing. NOT APPROPRIATE.

"Class has already started, young lady," he said as he walked towards her. "Care to tell the class why you are so late?" Because she was. Very late. AND LAUGHING.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Mind still occasionally returning to ice cream, Jory listened to a few responses before raising his hand. "He discovered another Polaris, Polaris B, I think it's called which is one of the smaller stars that are erm related to Polaris.'' So Jory thought. He hoped he got at least part of it right as he had read this a while back.

"Precisely!" Airey said while pointing at the seventh year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

He stayed perfectly upright in his seat and watched the errant Gryffindor enter the room before raising his hand, half hoping to distract the professor from taking points from the ickle. "Polaris is actually a multiple star, sir, and Herschel discovered the second star in the system using an uber powerful telescope for the time."

"Very good, Mr. Branxton. And it was a very powerful telescope that he made himself."

Quote:

Originally Posted by LilFox06

"He found a lot of double star systems. Since they were close together they sort of orbited around each other." Or maybe it was the other way around: Since they rotated around each other, they had to be close together? It was kind of a chicken/egg scenario, wasn't it?

Anyway.

"Anyway. Kind of like the us and moon there's a force that rotates them together." A force that involved math and a calculator and computers and telescopes... and effort.

Considering her previous answer, Airey was not surprised at all that Miss Phillips touched on more important points. "Excellent, Miss Phillips. And that force is the pull of gravity from the larger of the celestial objects and the forward motion of a body in space."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Team ronmione

Answers, answers, and more answers. Tag really didn't know much about this guy, hence his comical answer earlier. So, he did not have much background information on this Herschel. Which, by the way, made Tag want to have chocolate . But, the only thing that popped into his mind about anything star, or astronomy related was " North Star? I don't know. Something about it. That's one of the stars I've heard is really popular? Yeah?" Tag answered and asked rather blindly. Yeah. He didn't know too much at the moment. But, he would get to taking his notes very soon.

And where had this Gryffindor been all term? Considering that the majority of his lessons had been on the North Star. He still managed a small nod in the boy's direction. "Yes, it does have something to do with the North Star, which is the layman's term for Polaris."

Quote:

Originally Posted by DecemberMoon

"Well, Professor, he was the first to notice the solar system was actually moving through space. So maybe that has something to do with the fixed position of Polaris?" How, she wasn't really sure but she thought if everything else was moving, maybe it would make it easier to learn more about the things that were holding still? She kept her notebook out, ready to write important things about it - and also, maybe to think up some new ice cream flavors because that was important too.

"It does indeed," he nodded. "Stellar kinematics is another fascinating field of study and is actually what all you did for your homework assignment." The campout by the lake that is. "Although the answer I was looking for does not have to do with Polaris' seemingly stationary position."

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

Galileo was the one with the beard. Noted. And did anyone else jump when Professor Airey randomly yelled? Just her? Okay. Plus, Gryffindor just lost points with a firstie coming in late. So, all in all, a good lesson so far. But that question, Sky had no clue what the answer was. At all. But some of her classmates were saying it was Polaris B. Great potential for a joke there. She wasn't going to go there, though. Nope, she was just going sit here and listen. Mmm hmmmm.

Airey gave the Slytherin a small nod. Attentive listening. Good good. Hopefully she was also taking notes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hey Ju

Sophie smiled at professor Flamsteed's salute. She didn't quite understand what that had been for, but still, it had been nice of him! Hehehehe!

Ooooo, the man was a composer! Nice!! Sophie liked listening to music, even classical music, and that man looked like a classical composer. The Hufflepuff wondered if Mordred could play any of this Herschel's songs. He probably could. Mordred could do anything if he wanted. Yep.

But Sophie really had never heard of this Astronomer before. She felt behind and go slightly more nervous about her upcoming OWLs, especially after the professor mentioned those himself. Merlin, help her! She had TONS to study still, hadn't she? djkfnsjkfndsjkfsn Nuuuu! Why couldn't she just take Charms OWLs? She'd be happy with just those, really!

The badger's eyes were wide now and she made a mental note to start studying more ASAP. She needed self control and stop studying Charms only. MERLIN!!!

Another attentive listener earned another encouraging nod.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

Laura looked at the Professor and raised her hand. "Professor, can I ask you a question, how come his son John got a knighthood for services to Science but I don't think he did sir, have you any idea why that would be?" Laura could only think that it was the fact he wasn't born in Britain but she wasn't sure.

Laura then went back to the question, she raised her hand again but this time it was because she had an answer. "Professor Polaris B was first noticed by William Herschel in 1780, he was the very first person to find out that there was two parts to Polaris." Laura smiled she was hoping she was right.

"Ah, but he WAS made Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order by the Prince Regent," Airey pointed out. "And remember what I said earlier about people not getting their proper recognition while alive? Life hardly treats us all fair. Sometimes we work so hard to achieve a goal and do everything right, but things do not work out for us. Sometimes the reason is unjust. Sometimes it is political. Sometimes it is based on injury." Although it was clear with his last remark that he was no longer talking about Herschel anymore.

Lost in his own personal thoughts for a moment, his attention was drawn back to Miss Hyde and her answer. Which was right, so she earned a pat on the back and a smile before he moved on to the next student.

He really needed that ice cream now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talikins

NEWTs? Yes what about that? Blink....this was going to be in that.

MERLIN WHERE WERE HER NOTES THEN?

Hastily the red head grabbed her quill and scribbled 'William Herschel' on a blank page. She then underlined it and wrote some more, like the fact that he was born in Germany but was actually British as well as the discoveries Airey mentioned.

Still no answer for the question though, because she didn't know that either. She didn't exactly spend her free time reading about Astronomy..she rather read love stories, or Nicolas Spark stories, those were way more interesting then reading about stars. PSHH.

Wait she would as well as scribble down later. Now all she did was put on a HUGE fish face and stared at Airey, waiting, waiting and waiting for more things to write.

And there was the Head Girl again. Making strange faces at him again. Hmmmm. Moving along though. She was taking notes after all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by the fastest seeker

The fourth-year sat looking at the hair trying to see it at different and not bad. Nope. She couldn't, it still was bad in her eyes. Though, she didn't say that out loud. Might be taken personal against astronauts? She had nothing against them. Except ones with bad hairstyles.

Then she tore her attention from the man and listened to all what was said. She scribbled down on her textbooks. Easy access notes, helps her revise more than having to find them all in the book. The book was huge! So at least she was doing something. She was taking notes. Because she didn't know what the German astronauts had discovered. Well, she knew about the two moons but that was said. She had no idea about his Polaris-related discovery.

She'll find out now. After students answered and after Professor Flamsteed corrected them and all.

No rush.

Another note taking and attentive listener. All good in his book, so it was off to the next student.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PotterHeadforLife

OWLs... NEWTs. Kat already took OWLs last term so... no biggy. She still had until next term for her NEWTs though. She didn't feel like having an early review of her six years of magical education. She could do that... next term, on her final year.

......... Well, thinking of that was sort of sad. She was going to be a seventh year soon. That sucks.

Anyway, the prefect saw no point of repeating answers again. Instead, she just took notes and copied all of the things the others said. Well, not exactly ALL. Some of them were saying... irrelevant and stuff Kat felt wasn't important. She left those back.

Still listening. Yep.

........who also didn't have their hand raised for an answer. But good note taking from what he could see, so she got two thumbs up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fanficfanatict

Glare.

What was he even LOOKING at. Flamstead could take his eyes and put them somewhere else besides his face because he was NOT keen on being looked at right now. Especially when his shoes were so heinous he couldn't even think properly. And that was this ruddy Professor's fault. Jerk face.

And no, he didn't know who this guy was so why would he even remotely know what he had accomplished? Because he didn't. That was why. It was like this whole school worked under the assumption that he knew everything. Smirk, well he knew EVERYTHING, but not EVERYTHING EVERYTHING. It was complicated.

So he continued to lean back and just GLARE at Flamstead.

Did this kid want a staring contest or something? If so Airey was game, just not in the middle of his lesson. Staring or glaring contest really since the boy had already been glaring longer than he had been staring. Poof that if you kept your face in the same position too long it would stay like that? Seemed like a legit hypothesis to this astronomer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaverickMagpie

Herschel? Hershey?

What the heck was Polaris? Had they covered that?

Or was it some kind of food? Because Hershey sounded mighty famili- WAIT.

JUST.

ONE.

MINUTE.

Hershey was a kind of chocolate, that was it! All these other people were just plain wrong and straight up saying words that Tobias didn't understand. So... so yeah that was probably something close? And they were totally learning about sweets in an astronomy lesson. After all hadn't they JUST been talking about ice cream? It was perfectly logical.

Tobias raised his hand. "Didn't Hershey have something to do with chocolate?"

Not very good chocolate... but chocolate nonetheless.

Hershey? "Oh, you must be referring to the squib brother of the inventor of croaka, Milton S. Hershey. Went on to be very famous in the muggle world with his chocolates. But we are discussing Herschel, not Hershey."

And great. Now he wanted chocolate ice cream.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Govoni

"Polaris' companion star.....which is just called Polaris B. He discovered it with a telescope that he made himself...which is rather impressive." They should build their own telescopes. At least that wouldn't have bored him to tears.

"That he most certainly did!" Airey said, giving the captain two thumbs up. "It had been my intention to have you construct similar telescopes this lesson using charms to modify the ones already in the Astronomy Tower....but the goblins too those." So apologies kids. To telescope making for you all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrtpuplvr

Listening as the class went on, "Chocolate? Did someone say chocolate!" His mouth was watering. Asher wanted nothing more than ice cream and chocolate. Wondering if he could find any answers in his book, Asher began flipping through the pages.

"He did," Airey said as he pointed to the young Hufflepuff. What? That had been the question and Airey's job was to answer all questions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScarletCharm104

Marigold wanted ice cream. And she was glad the astronomy teacher wanted it too, even if he wouldn't let then have it.

Ohh... Herschel. She had read about him.

"Herschel was famous for discovering many double and multiple stars."

She was definitely getting ice cream after this.

Airey nodded. "He was, which is what Miss Phillips said earlier," he nodded. "But what does this have to do with Polaris?" That had been the real question. She still got a smile from the astronomer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deniiz

"Multiple stars! He said it was a multiple star!" What multiple star was, Forrest had a vague idea. But Herschel and the book said so.

"RIGHT YOU ARE!" he said with some rather enthusiastic finger pointing towards one of his favorite the Hufflepuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by McFeisty

Mika had not known who the man in the powdered wig was. Heck, she didn't even know the reason people wore them. They just looked so, so itchy and uncomfortable. So they were learning more about Polaris today? She wondered unless today was a day that they would say dress up in powdered wigs and act like crazy 15th century people saying things like Well, I disagree with that statement young lass... and other ways of making yourself sound like an over grown snob.

She would be kind of ticked if today's lesson was a lesson in Snobbery.

Deep in thought it seemed. Airey gave Miss Johanson an encouraging nod before he saw another hand raised.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hpfan18

As he was searching he heard someone mention Hershey chocolate? Kace chuckled at that while flipping through pages and then came across something...."Professor i see that Herschel saw that Polaris had a companion named Polaris B. I do not know why he didn't give it a cooler name but that is just me. But i am glad it had some company."

"BINGO!" he said as he flashed a thumbs up to the boy.

Looking around and seeing that there were no more hands raised, Airey checked his sundial watch and decided it was time to move along. If it got to be too late party pooper groundskeeper would be on his case for letting students run around the grounds too late at night.

"Excellent, all of you," he applauded. Even those who had been incorrect. "In 1780 William Herschel, using a reflecting telescope that he built himself, discovered that Polaris is not just one star as many had assumed, but actually two stars with one orbiting the other. This other star, called Polaris B, is a main sequence star with a luminosity about 8 times that of the sun. To put this into perspective, Polaris has a luminosity about 2400 times that of the sun." Just for some fun factoids for them all. "This means that Polaris is actually something called a multiple star. A multiple star is a star that, from our perspective on earth, appears to be just one glowing entity in the sky but is really three or more stars in close proximity to one another. As several of your classmates also mentioned, it was discovered in 2006 thanks to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope that there was a third star involved, this one called Polaris Ab. Please note that that is a capital A with a lowercase b. Polaris Ab was known to exist thanks to its gravitational tug on Polaris A. I have with me today a poster of the images taken by the Hubble."

And he flicked his wand towards the board to remove the Disillusionment Charm on yet another poster.

SPOILER!!: The Polaris System

source: HubbleSite - NewsCenter - There's More to the North Star Than Meets the Eye (01/09/2006) - Release Images

Man he really wanted some chocolate ice cream right now. Okay, random thought was over. Sort of.

"Therefore, technically speaking, when we say we are using Polaris to find North, we are really using The Polaris System to do so, meaning Polaris A, Polaris B, and Polaris Ab."

Pretty neat, right? Not as neat as chocolate ice cream would be right about now....

"Now, it had been my intention to have you all build telescopes like Herschel did so that you too could see this multiple star system, but unfortunately the goblins that appeared in the school earlier in the year have thwarted that plan." So...sorry guys. Really. He had been excited for it as well. "However, if you use the Eye Focusing Charm I taught last lesson you may be able to see it. Just not that it will cause great strain on the eyes."

Although that would be part of their in class assignment. Heh.

"Instead I would like us all to back up just a bit. Previously we discussed how sailors specifically used Polaris for navigational purposes. With that in mind...can anyone tell me what this is and what it does?" he asked as he held up a strange looking gold object.

Surely Mr. Odessa would know what this was since he had....wait a moment. Where WAS Mr. Odessa?


OOC: I lied. Much longer than 11 hours thank you all for your patience. This lesson will continue....later. Much later. Giving approximate times does not seem to work for me this time around :3

Where WAS West Odessa was kind of a good question? He was currently de-linting and trying to find a moment to slip in unnoticed. Because that was possible. Not like he was the tallest boy in fourth year or anything. Or like he was one of Flammy's star students or whatever.

Perhaps he should just own it. Own the fact that he was late. That he'd lost track of time as was becoming a habit lately.

West opened the door and slipped into the observatory. Maybe he'd be doing a better job of not being noticed if he didn't immediately blurt out. "Cool sextant." He'd kinda wondered why they hadn't got to use one in their Polaris lesson stuff. West found his seat and sat down. Sup Flammy.

Anya was so pleased with herself. The Professor was excited and she was doing well. But more importantly-- she was getting ice cream after the lesson to reward herself.

She nodded a few times at his explanations and the posters.

OH! She knew what that was. Her hand shot up. "That's a sextant!" she exclaimed happily. "I once used one to measure how high a hot air balloon was." True story. Of course... that was because of a maths class she had taken and by itself the sextant only measured angles. But whatever. She was hyper and didn't feel like specifying.

Did he really want Nigel to answer that? Or was it rhetorical.

"It is in the same Solar System and Galaxy." See Nigel did know a little astronomy. Never did like the other astro thing.

He knew that that object was also. It did have a pretty awesome name.

"Sextant" That was what it was.

Kace was pleased he was doing well! He liked that the professor said Bingo for his answer. Yes! Score two for Kace. He was liking the professor and subject each and every lesson. Then he heard the professor teach them about polaris.

O__O.... Woooahhhh that was a lot of information to handle. It was all on the board. He copied it down into his notebook to have for later. He was gonna be smart about this class. He even saw the posters and nodded at them and thought they were SO cool.

Then he saw a cool looking instrument. He had NO idea what it was. But he knew it was used to discover stars like Polaris! But he heard two students say it was a Sextant? Hmmm....interesting name for an instrument. He looked in his textbook for a understanding on the instrument.

"Professor i know the sextant measures the angle between two objects."

The ice cream offer had been totally not fair. Peyton could still taste the anticipation of ice cream on her tongue. Ugh. How was she supposed to concentrate now? KARMA. Airey Flamsteed, you gonna get bad karma. Hmph.

She slumped, resting her chin on her palm. Oh, look. A picture of an old man. His eyes were looking up. Looking up at the sky, probably. Peyton didn't know his name. He looked ancient. She didn't do ancient.

Ooohooohahaha! Late person was totally late. She didn't look like a Slytherin either. It cheered up Peyton. She sat up straight, suddenly interested in the lesson. Hehehahaa.

Cool gadget. Peyton's seen it at her grandmother's house before, and the woman had gone on and on about it when Peyton used it as a toy. Her hand froze mid-air when she noticed a late Odessa. Welp. No one saw that, right? Right.

"That's a sextant." Yep. "It measures the angle of a celestial object -- it's a natural thing in the sky," just fwi, "and the horizon. It's known as taking a sight."

Boy, the Professor sure said a lot of things that weren't related to ice-cream. He gave them that one bit then that was it for the whole class and everything was serious and filled with questions she didn't know the answer to. When would the activity start? She didn't want to play this twenty questions game anymore. Everyone was winning but 'cept her.

She tried listening to everything he was saying, it'd be useful later on probably and she'd found her bounce again but this time it wasn't because of excitement, it was restlessness.

Then it seemed they'd be playing more of the guessing game. What in merlin's beard...? She tilted her head...then tilted it more. She kept tilting and twisting until she fell off her seat with a small 'Eeek!' What a curious piece of equipment. All she knew about it was that it wasn't that bowl of chocolate ice-cream she wanted--oh waaaait, wait. "That, Professor, is one shiny compass." It looked like a compass, an ancient one and he said to guess.

It was either that or a painfully slow piece of execution equipment in which case this class either just got far more interesting, or there was cause for concern. Not for her though. The Professor wouldn't out her. The others now, she supposed she was about worried for them...but only a little.

Come to think of it, that idea was far cooler than a mere compass. There wasn't much you could get done with those that Polaris couldn't already help you with.

"What everyone else said," Alice started, unfazed by the professor jumping all over her desk and the sudden entrance of Slytherins. "Usually, it measures the altitude of stuff as well as the angle. Helps with celestial navigation, I think." She was thinking of other uses now, though. "Do you think it could knock someone out, too, professor? It looks kinda heavy. If you hit 'em hard enough. Like over the head or something." Totally a use for a sextant, she decided.

Ice cream still on the mind, could he tell?

Melanie stared at the shiny object the professor was holding.

It was a gold type of shiny and she had absolutely no idea what it was because she was pretty sure that was not covered in the OWLs or NEWTs. And if it was, Melanie had not studied that last term... or the term before that... or the one before... well, Melanie just hadn't studied it before. But she nodded when everyone else said what the strange shiny object was. "It's not a protractor," Melanie muttered quietly after hearing something about measuring angles as she took notes and gave her notes some notes.

Because Melanie used a protractor before and it wasn't that shiny. Or all old-machine-gadget-y looking either. Nope. Protractor was plain old piece of plastic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

STARE. Was this little Gryffindor laughing at astronomy? Never mind that she was late. Laughing at his subject was far worse. Well, laughing and comparing it to astrology really, but still. Laughing. NOT APPROPRIATE.

"Class has already started, young lady," he said as he walked towards her. "Care to tell the class why you are so late?" Because she was. Very late. AND LAUGHING.

"I don't care at all," Zahra smiled, in a very, WHY THANKS FOR ASKING PROFESSOR sort of way. How nice that he was concerned! As he should be. She began, not at all bothered that class was going on and she was about to tell a TALE. A true one, too.

"See............... thing is............ my DAD is like.... well, he's totally the Minister of Magic now. And APPARENTLY," CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS EYE ROLL HERE," that means that I have NEW rules? Just for ME? SO my MUM wrote out this whole long letter. It's even NUMBERED. It's like, 1. Zahra Kettleburn will not be rumored to be riding a billion year old tree or something. Like an ACTUAL list of things I can't do! She only does that for my BROTHER, not ME. And so like, I'm reading this list.... and I"m thinking.... and she sent me some food 'cause you know the food situation here right? AmIRightSir? So reading... eating.... end of a long day...... I took a nap. As it turns out, PROF, being the Minister's KID is going to be HARD WORK." Like watch how her SHOULDERS SAG? SO HARD. SO TIRING.

So see? She didn't mind telling him at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

"Instead I would like us all to back up just a bit. Previously we discussed how sailors specifically used Polaris for navigational purposes. With that in mind...can anyone tell me what this is and what it does?" he asked as he held up a strange looking gold object.

Surely Mr. Odessa would know what this was since he had....wait a moment. Where WAS Mr. Odessa?

"That is a PIRATE TOOL!" Zahra JUMPED UP and punched the AIR because YES PIRATE TOOLS.

Right, so, not Newton. Then she definitely knew nothing about this guy or anything else Flamsteed was asking, so the fifteen-year-old's hand stayed down for these next questions. Instead, she just listened to the others and occasionally jotted down a note or two. Hopefully there would be an activity soon...

And was that two people that were actually late to the lesson? A Gryffindor firstie...and West? Odd.

Also, hitting someone over the head with the weird thing - sextant, was that what they were all calling it? - as a use for it, according to Alice? Yeah, Penelope wrote that down in her notes.

Oh, sextant? Or some sort of weapon, if Alice was to be believed. Mo studied the object in the professor's hand somewhat dispassionately. He was much more concerned about the ickle who'd just wandered in late. And waaaaaaaaaay more concerned that West was late too. West was never careless. He was too tightly wound for it... in a good way.

Mo gnawed his lip at studied the professor and West and... was Anya trying to touch his hair again? He was just going to be quiet. Yes.