OH! She was a little late.

To the grounds she headed her hands in her pockets wondering where the camp was. She couldn't remember. A couple of wondering minutes later she spotted the tent and some students and the professors. Picking up her pace, the sixth year made her way there.

Wow, the tent beat any tent she had ever camped in when she was little.

Settling in, Nerida dropped and

So where was that Polaris? The blonde looked out at the sky and started scanning the sky for that star.

Ethan smiled a bit at Minerva's excitement upon seeing him and he hugged her back. He was still concerned over her ultra hyper behavior, but he was happy to see her at the same time. "Oh, just a few.." he began but then she was on to something else and he looked at her a bit funny as she explained the assignment. Yes, he already knew that or why else would he be here. His gaze followed her pointing finger as she pointed out Polaris. "That's not what I meant," he said as his eyes easily found the star, having just found Ursa Minor before finding his girlfriend. "I know what the assignment is.. uh, what?" He stared at her for a moment, really worried about her now. It was not like her to just make up complete nonsense in class and pass it off as real, with extreme excitement. The Minerva he knew took her schoolwork seriously.. she was not acting like herself at all. At the mention of the Slytherin prefect, Ethan looked over at Daichi. He didn't seem to be acting too weird right now, but he was keeping an eye on him after that last Astronomy class.. the boy had done lost his mind then.

Lighten up?? He wasn't uptight, just concerned with the sudden change in behavior.. surely she would feel the same if the situation were reversed? "I suppose it can be," he said as she mentioned how fun and exciting Astronomy was. "But since when did you get this excited about this particular class?" He had never even seen her this excited over Transfiguration or Charms and he knew she liked them loads better than looking at stars.. He looked into her blue eyes as she looked back into his green ones, still full of concern. He still couldn't quite put his finger on what was happening with this girl, but there was something off. And the ice cream again? Ethan shook his head. "No, thanks.. it's too cold for ice cream." Even with the warmth of the tent, it was still freezing outside and it just wasn't all that appetizing because of it. "I'll stick with my s'mores and coffee.." he smiled a little bit and took a sip of his hot drink, though he was still keeping an eye on her. Maybe a trip to the Healer once the campout was over..

So when she found Ursa minor she thought to give herself a treat and stuff a cookie in her mouth. Sounded very realistic and like a good plan except when she swallowed the cookie and looked back up because she had to look down for the cookie, she thought that she might have lost Ursa Minor. And like she was going to find Polaris depending on it. Not the perfect idea. The cookie should've waited till she spotted Polaris.

Looking back at the sky, Cassia sighed hoping the constellation didn't move……Well, of course it didn't that's like what the lesson was about. And a couple of other things.

Fortunately, it didn't take much for the fourth-year to find Ursa Minor again. And this time she brought her finger up, closed on eye and followed the starline that drew the 'pot'. Then stopping at the tip she grinned. Because that is Polaris! Okay, this stargazing is really fun.

West was pretty eager for this assignment, and even the transparent tent was cool right? And it was warm enough and not like there wasn't enough food, though he didn't touch the ice cream because it was hardly the right sort of weather and besides, Quidditch season, y'know?

He went for Hotdogs and coffee, finding both to be a more satisfying choice for the long night ahead. He built up a couple of hotdogs on a paper plate, slathering the buns with all the trimmings, because otherwise they wouldn't be nearly as good obviously.

He had brought parchment and pencils today, so that he could sketch what he saw and track the progress of the constellations across the sky. He was kinda doing his own thing, rather than socializing, at least that was the intention until he got his homework done and all that. West found a comfy cushion and set himself up, starting by looking up to the sky to find Polaris.That was the easy part . He picked up a hotdog and chowed down on that, practically inhaling it while he looked up at the sky.

Identifying Ursa Major was the first point of call. He focused up on the sky and looked for it..... there. There it was. And there was Cassiopeia, the W shape made it easy to confirm it.... he traced a line.... and there. That was Polaris for sure. Pleased with that, West made a few marks on his parchment. Awesome. He sipped his coffee casually and then picked up his second hotdog.

Marigold finished her cookie pretty quickly. She could relax a little now, and so she reclined on her back and looked up at the stars. She scanned the sky.

Hey, was that Orion's Belt? Which meant that Orion was riiiiight there.

Marigold grinned. She liked astronomy.

So he had to find the five major circumpolar constellations yes? And track them? He'd already spotted Ursa Major and Cassiopeia, given the fact that he'd used them to find Polaris and all that. So of course that left Ursa Minor, Draco, and Cepheus. West didn't have much stress working out where they were, and while eating his second hot dog he looked up at the sky and looked for the constellations. It wasn't even hard. Look, there was Cepheus not that far from Cassiopeia. West marked it down and then paused in his stargazing to drink some more coffee.

He was feeling perky.

Also he wasn't bothering with that focusing charm, it was more enjoyable to just look up there and spot the ones that he could and all. If there were ones he couldn't make out, or couldn't figure where they were, then he'd think about using that charm.

Now for Draco.... West scanned the sky and let his eyes adjust.

Nigel was getting a little tired of standing. He rationalized that he could see the starts just was well lounging from the couch. The Ravenclaw was feeling a little lazy tonight. Plus he was hungry and has not had s'mores in years. Though he did want to starfish.

Yes he would do that. Nigel flopped down on some cushions and started to starfish. He looked up at the stars and looked for one of the five circumpolar constellations. Shouldn't be too hard. He was looking for Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, or Camelopardalis.

First, he had to eat something. Should not look at constellation with an empty stomach. Procrastination was not doing Nigel any favors tonight.

Dylan, dressed down in his Greenbay gear he'd gotten on holiday, settled in under the transparent tent. The stars were exceptionally bright for a January night...his eyes dilating as they casually peered up. Grasped tightly in his hands were refreshments...The coffee had been more appreciated than anything else on the table...and Dylan had fixed his up right...Lots of cream and sugar. He also had a huge piece of chocolate.....Yep, the Slytherin was planning a full scale sugar rush.

No sleeping for him tonight...

Taking a particularly big bite out of the chocolate, Dylan settled back. He had yet to charm his eyes as they'd done in class...but he'd get to that in a minute. For now, the Captain was just taking it in.

It was funny how when he was aware of it, the 'dippers' were more noticeable to his eyes. Like...for some reason, they immediately searched for that particular set of stars. Interesting stuff...and probably a bit to do with some psychology...or Divination....or whatever.

Siiiiiiigh.

He casually took another bite of chocolate and sipped his coffee.

There was a MAJOR grin on Daichi's face when he heard Minerva calling him. He waved from the other side of the bubble they were in and then nodded his head enthusiastically. "YEP, I SAW!" He shouted at her question if he had seen the ice cream.

It was actually one of the first things he noticed~ Aaaand loooook Dylan and West were showing up as well like he KNEW they would. YAY~ Hmmm...should he give them a welcome hug? But before he could even do anything he saw that Minerva had begun to spin around and a worried Ethan stood next to her. "ETHAN! Your face looks so funny~" meaning his worried face of course. BEAAAM!

Oh, right, they were busy with an assignment... Daichi shook his head, and still with his goofy grin that was totally not him since his fourth year. He had found Polaris easily as well as Ursa Minor. He shifted his body a liiiittle bit until he lay comfortable on the cushions and gazed up.

The W shaped constellation...which one was that again? He could clearly see it , it was right in the middle of his view. "Cassiopeia!" he grinned when he suddenly remembered and it was then that he heard another familiar voice calling him.

"JORY~! What up man?!" HAPPINESS WAS EVERYWHERE~! :3

Finishing off his last bit of chocolate, Dylan sighed, slowly pulling his wand. It was time to do that weird vertigo thing to his eyes. Merlin, it was akin to spidy-senses...In fact, back when they were still in class, the Slytherin was almost convinced he'd seen dust particles...

Okay, that was exaggerating...but still.

Performing the light wave and singular tap to his eyelid, Dylan firmly stated "Oculo Focalis." He was getting better in his execution of the spell...because this time, his eyes wasted no time focusing in high contrast and definition on the scene above.

Oh, that was much better to see the stars, though. Now, the Captain could clearly make out Draco, his favorite constellation. Dragons and all that....and the 'dippers'. Big and Little. Those were better visible to him, jumping out almost at once. Or...he should use their appropriate names. Ursa Major and Minor.

HA. It was going to be a TRIP trying to sketch with his eyes like this....Oh, Dylan was totally doing it...later...But for now...

...Focusing back on the task at hand...the Slytherin noted that the first three constellations he'd seen were those Circumpolar ones. Three of the five...That had been on the checklist of things to do specifically. SO, moving on...

Now this didn't feel like doing homework, this seemed like relaxing and having fun while pointing out stars in the sky. And it was cool because they didn't have to use the spell they learnt at class. Because that caused her eyes to burn and it didn't feel much normal seeing everything extra large. Not that it didn't come in handy, mhhmm, that spell was one to keep in mind. You never know when you have to see something clearly without nearing it. Especially if like you weren't allowed to go near it.

In short, using your naked eyes to locate constellations was pretty cool. Though now after have found both Ursa Minor and Polaris she was supposed, also wanted, to locate a third one. And she had the idea that it'd be harder because the ones she located were supposed to be the easiest to locate. Though, again, a bunch of them were supposed to be clear at this time of year. But that kinda confused her..a lot of stuffs confuse her actually if she think about them too much. And to avoid that she retrieved her textbook that contained the notes she has scribbled during class. Splitting a cookie in half, she took a bite and flipped through the pages until she got to her notes page. Though everything is mentioned in the book, Cassia had a way of collecting her own notes and thoughts in a way that was easier for her and easy to access.

According to her notes the easiest to find, in her own opinion, was Cassiopeia. Because it was all 'W' shaped and all. So she figured it'd be easy to find it. Stuffing the rest of the cookie in her mouth, Cassia leaned back and tipped her head up towards the sky. Shouldn't be hard to find, hopefully.

The sky was so beautiful probably the sky's flaw. It was too easy to get lost in thought. Before she actually got lost she headed over towards the table with the snacks.

She eyed the ice cream and was about to take some but decided not the time for that, plus she was already cold. Instead of the cold stuff she picked up some cookies, two peanut butter and one chocolate chips.

She bit into one as she made her way back to her spot. Crossing her legs as she leant on the cushion. As she nibbled onto the cookie she looked down remembering what they discussed in class about finding Polaris. So first she must find Ursa Minor.

Squinting her eyes, Nerida kept searching the sky for the constellation.

Come on where was that thing!! WAIT?? WAIT! Is that a pot? ! She found Ursa Minor!! Polaris should be right down there!

Time to for? Hmm.. Should he decide on one constellation to find or hope to find one circumpolar constellation by just looking in the stars. Decisions,Decisions.

Draco sounded like an awesome enough collection of stars to look for. So time to look to the star. Nigel still lounging on some cushions. They were amazingly comfy. Nigel was considering not moving from this spot until he got thirsty. It smelled like coffee was here. But Nigel did not need that yet. Maybe later.

The star were amazing tonight and Nigel could see why. Okay stop being sidetracked. Lets find Draco. Nigel was thinking he was seeing a couple other collection of stars. But could not be certain until he opened his textbook and gathered proof. He needed evidence. Just his eyes were not enough.

Looking some more. Out of the corner of his eye. He spotted at last. Draco. It was kind of cool. But disappointing considering the time he spent looking for it. Now he need some ice cream and coffee before he moved onto want to do next.

After finding the Ursas and Draco (or really Mika found Draco), Mo had no trouble spotting Cepheus and poor Cassiopeia just beyond. He leaned back against his cushion again, his eyes moving from those circumpolar constellations and on to the others surrounding them. Did he have a favorite?

"I like the stories for some of them, y'know? And the ones that mean something to me, like my Zodiac sign and all that." Mo pointed at Cassiopeia again and then traced the stars until he ran into Andromeda again. "Did you know that Andromeda is Cassiopeia's mother? She wasn't a very good mother, though... kept her all chained up." That was the definition of bad parenting.

When Alice entered the stargazing tent, the first thing that caught her eye was the food. Coffee, she was getting some of that for tonight. You just couldn't do homework when you were absolutely famished. Starving wasn't good for thinking, so she loaded a plate full of hot dogs as well, and s'mores. She'd never tried one of those, but two of the most sugary things melted down and stuck in between graham crackers would definitely make her stomach happy. And ice cream, she got some of that, too.

Settling down on the floor of the tent's central room, she arranged her food around her and organized an array of pillows to lounge on while she stargazed. But first food, then homework. Alice was living by that philosophy today, so she reached for a hot dog and tried to decide how to begin searching for Polaris. How was she supposed to find it, again?

.. and whoops no textbook for help. Was that an issue?

Draco.... The Draaagon. West looked for it carefully. He started by spotting The Big Dipper asterism, in particular Phecda and Megrez since they pointed to Thuban right? Thuban was a cool one, West reflected as he let his eyes adjust to try pick it out. It was a binary star but its companion hadn't ever been imaged. He liked the idea that nobody quite knew what kind of star it would end up being.

He also liked the connection to Egypt and the pyramids given his dad had been a Curse-Breaker and all. It was just one of those things that his dad had told him about that he thought was neat.

It wasn't an easy one to spot regularly, kinda dimmish, but there wasn't any light pollution so eventually West got it. He traced the rest of the Draco constellation with a fingertip. After looking at it a bit longer West referred to his parchment again and made a few notes and marks. Afterward he was hoping to do some drawings, so he needed notes and stuff to work from mmhmm.

No textbook was not an issue. Alice could definitely find Polaris without help from a lump of old notes anyway, really. It could just be located by the same method from class, the pointer stars on the Big Dipper, which wouldn't be too hard to find. Ursa Major first, then?

The hot dog was distracting, and she went through her first and second ones before tilting her head back up to the sky in search of Ursa Major. Stargazing could wait, okay? Food first, homework second. But with her second hot dog devoured, Alice was pretty focused and managed to find the bear with no problems. And then if she just looked along it.. there! Big Dipper located as well now. If she looked at the corner of it, she could spot the pointer stars, too. Those were supposed to point her towards Polaris.

Well. Point away, little stars, they could do that while Alice ate more food.

So y'know, since West was doing good so far and had spotted Polaris and the five main circumpolar constellations, so he could look for constellations for fun now. And maybe some planets. And maybe that one Asterism...

...Selina.

So obviously that gave West a reason to look around. And obviously his eyes went to one particular part of the tent. Picking up his notes and his plate of food and his cushion, West moved over to sit with Alice.

He didn't say hi, just went and sat there. Now the hard part would be seeing the stars in the sky when his eyes were all full of them on account of nearby Alices.

Ahem. He looked up at the sky again and tried to find Cygnus, spotting it quickly since it was nearby Draco and all. Yep just looking at the sky, no big deal.

Nibbling on the end of a third hot dog, Alice followed the line of the pointer stars until she reached the North Star. Or.. was that Polaris? How was she supposed to tell? This was where the textbook would have come in handy, she assumed. It was alright though, she had brain food and a mental textbook in her head that she could CHANNEL and stuff. So she'd do that.

Finally finished with all the hot dogs, she moved on to the s'mores while considering the constellations she knew of. Polaris was part of the Little Dipper, wasn't it? When she examined the star more closely, Alice could trace it in as part of the Little Dipper with her finger, which meant it WAS the star she was looking for. Excellent. Rewarding herself with a second s'more, she recorded what she saw on a piece of parchment as neatly as she could (though sketching wasn't an area of expertise for her and her drawing more or less resembled a disfigured potato).

But that was still a really good sketch in HER eyes, so she'd give herself a third s'more for it, too. Circumpolar constellations next? She was going to start looking for them until Wests just.. appeared. Alice continued munching on her s'more, not bothering looking at the sky anymore. Because now there were better things to look at than Cepheus, see?

West shot a sideways look at her and then looked up at the sky again. But he wasn't done being distracted or distracting. West slid his hand sideways and discreetly caught her free one up. Y'know, the one she wasn't using for s'more munching.

So what was he gonna spot? West just looked up at the sky. It was just stars now really. Not that he minded. Its not like the professor could read his mind and actually know he wasn't properly looking at any constellations. He was actually looking right at Lacerta, only West didn't register it, even if it was his favourite for lizard reasons.

He squeezed her hand gently and still didn't look at her.

Because stars and homework and all that.

Three s'mores and three hot dogs, and Alice was feeling like around maybe a fourth of her stomach was full. Airey had a big supply of food, right? Hopefully he did, because she'd be going back for seconds. At the moment, though, other things had her occupied, so his table was safe. For now.

Next was to find one of the circumpolar constellations, and she was familiar with all of them except one. Draco, wasn't it? Dragon. She didn't know any of the names of the stars that made it up or anything, but she knew what it looked like. Alice laced her fingers together with West's and gave his hand a squeeze back, but redirected her gaze back up again. Cepheus was kind of like a little house, right? She located the triangular tip of it quickly enough, and then Draco, once her eyes scanned over the long string of stars forming the constellation.

Attempting to sketch that with her free hand and failing miserably again, Alice sneaked another peek over at him before looking back up again. Because stars. And stuff. And yeah.

Fingers linked between them and resting against the ground, it wasn't particularly obvious that they were holding hands at all, not unless someone came right on over and could somehow see between the cushions and all.

It made all the difference though, and while West wasn't doing a great job at concentrating anymore it did mean he was enjoying himself a lot more. He picked his coffee up and sipped it and studied the sky again, this time realising hey, that WAS Lacerta. So y'know, write that down. He did. He wrote it down and made a few marks and notes for his final bit of work.

He looked for Aquarius next, and actually it was because HE was one, but he wouldn't tell Flammy that was the reason why he was looking for it. That was just why it had popped into his head considering that was the part of the year they had just hit and his birthday was real soon and all. But it was sorta a challenge to see with the naked eye. It could be seen, he knew, it was just that it wasn't an extremely bright constellation. It was an interesting one anyway even if it wasn't the one what reflected his zodiac thing and all. For instance West had read that eleven exoplanet systems had been found in Aquarius so far. What if one of them had a planet in it what was like Earth? Where people could live? He kept looking up there and finally spotted its shape, though it took a bit of concentration to be sure. It was right though. That was Aquarius.

He used his non-Alice-holding hand to mark that down. Constellation of his own choice? Check.

HE FOUND IT!!! Woohooo he found it... She clapped with excitement.. "Isn't it the best thing ever!!" Because finding your own constellation who did that, Minerva of course!! Then he was saying hello's as well to her super new awesome from Daichi. Who had seen the ice cream.. Sweetness.. because everyone should know where the ice cream is.

Speaking of ice cream.. *eyes* cute boyfriend. "Smores and Coffee.. honestly are you seventeen or seventy. Such an old persons drink.. You should put ice cream in your coffee.. OMG that would make it so much better! Why don't I go get you some to do that. I could use more ice cream myself." yep..yep can't have enough ice cream, but before she could did Jory say something. Shooting her baby blues up to the sky she jumped, "I see pices too.. I see it.. " doing a little happy dance, "I am find these things.. See I'm not star dumb.."

Oh but weren't they suppose to be drawing or sketching these things. Pulling parchment from her bag and a quill she began doodling more than sketching not an artist mind you when she heard Ethan again, looking up why was he not smiling, he was so cute when he smiled, "When did I get excited for this class. How can you not get excited for this class. Professor Flamsteed give ice cream.. ICE CREAM.. coolest teacher ever.. Plus it's class and we get to do homework. When isn't class and homework the best thing ever."

Back to sketching, but she didn't get far when she heard Daichi say something that first made her laugh so hard she dropped her parchment onto the ground, but then she looked up and touched Ethan's face. "No Daichi that's not night. His face doesn't look funny, its the most adorable, handsome hot keeper boy face around." because it totally was and she liked looking at it and it always distracted her from what she should be focused on, but tonight her eyes went to a different place, two younger students holding hands, but she didn't go up to them to say anything just looked at Ethan again. "Awww holding hands and looking at the stars. How adorably cute. We should totally hold hands right now, but hmmm you have your old man drink and my ice cream. I guess standing next to each other is cute too." Of course she ate more ice cream.

With his eyes still adjusting, Dylan heard a ton of talking and peeked his head over....Of course it was a Hufflepuff at the source of the noise. He shot her a glare..."Some of us...are trying to relax."...meaning....Stop talking.

Merlin...the Captain was glad Beezy Weezy wasn't anything like that. How did McCarthy deal?

Focusing back on the stars again (or trying to), he spied Orion....One he'd seen while in class...Oh, and Taurus right beside it again.......and Aries right beside that.....Pisces.....Aquarius. Yes, all but one of those were Zodiac constellations. Seemed his eyes were still better suited for spying that sort of thing...since he'd been reading about them more and more.

Dylan took a few more sips of coffee, surprised his hands weren't shaking from all the sugar he'd consumed. His system couldn't be used to it considering how absolutely against eating that stuff he was...

Oh, Capricornus...which was basically Capricorn...Another Zodiac constellation...Gah, he had a problem.

Reaching for her coffee and keeping her head tilted so she could still see the stars, Alice kept her gaze locked on the sky this time. No distractions and such. She was meant to find another constellation next, yeah? But not one of the circumpolar ones, one of her choise. Auriga, the one she'd named in class, was the one she gravitated to first, because she knew where it was. But that was boring, and she was channeling her mental textbook, so she wanted to find one she hadn't seen before.

Which of the other constellations named were close to Draco? Vaguely recalling that Hercules was supposed to be near it, she began searching around for that one. At the end of the string of stars that made up Draco was another line of stars, and Alice decided it could possibly resemble a leg. It had another beside it, didn't it? Real chicken-like legs. Not Herculean at all, in her opinion. How would Herculean star legs look? She sketched the chicken-like ones and the rest of the constellation hurriedly across the parchment with her free hand before stealing another glance sideways.

.. did someone say something about hand holding?