She was still... saying all of those words. Kaiser supposed he didn't really have any right to be surprised, not anymore, years of Astronomy lessons had told him that this subject was full of specific terminology which simply didn't come up in the novels he liked to read to help him with his mastery of the English language. He ran his hand over his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and sighed.

Three, two, one... back in the room.

Kaiser looked down at his star charts, now on his desk. This was one of those things, he figured, where the explanation was a lot more complicated than the actual activity. A lot of things in school seemed to be like that.

He was already behind, though, having not yet set up his telescope. Kaiser did that now, while keeping one eye on the students around him. Copying? Nooooo.

... Maybe a little bit.

Once he had the telescope set up, Kaiser sat back and looked at it. Was it really all that necessary for this task? He could see plenty of the constellations and asterisms with just his eyes, and also? He hated using the telescope. Genuinely hated it. Never seemed to be able to get it to work right, couldn't seem to judge the right amount of pressure when moving it around, and so never seemed to find what he was looking for. He genuinely had trouble finding the moon with it, sometimes.

Also, Kaiser wasn't sure where the hand measurement system came into all of this. Measuring in the sky, maybe, seeing as the arm had to be outstretched? He supposed he could ask, but Kaiser also wasn't terribly concerned. He was quite happy to blag his way through the proceedings.

Was it starting to become clear, exactly how he'd managed to fail his OWL?

Big Dipper and Little Dipper, Sandhu had said? Sure. Kaiser at least knew how to find those; it was pretty basic stuff. The end of the tail of the Little Dipper was Polaris, which was already on the chart. And the Big Dipper was... close to that. There was a line you could follow from the Big Dipper to get to Polaris, but doing it in reverse wasn't so easy. Kaiser could easily pick out the Big Dipper in the sky just by looking, and figure out where it was in relation to Polaris in the sky, but that wasn't terribly helpful with putting it on the chart.

And yet, Kaiser was already getting to work, using the ruler and everything, mimicking everyone else with the finger-measuring, and basically making the whole thing look easy. Well, it was easy when you didn't concern yourself with all the intricacies, and just haphazardly added things to the chart.

Tina blinked. Was Professor Sandhu tsking because she'd apologized for her answer or because her answer really was too obvious to voice? She wasn't sure, but either way, her answer hadn't been entirely correct. That was mildly discouraging, but at least she could trust this Professor not to dock points for giving a wrong answer, unlike some people in this school. *cough*de Nostredame*cough*

Tina paid attention as the professor spoke again, ready to take thorough notes. So they were doing star charts tonight? That sounded pretty straightforward… or at least it did until she heard they would be using their hands instead of actual measuring equipment. That seemed like an inexact method of measurement to her - people's hands were different sizes, after all - but she was willing to try it. She she to work assembling her telescope as Professor Sandhu handed out star charts. It was nothing fancy, an older model that had been handed down to her, but it got the job done.

Once she was finished snapping the pieces of her telescope together, Tina turned her attention to her star chart, paying special attention to the scale at the bottom. Polaris was filled in, but she'd have to add the rest herself. She pointed her telescope in the direction of Polaris, peering through the small hole, and soon located the star in question. From there, it was easy to find the other stars in the Little Dipper. Merlin, what a ridiculous name! Who came up with this stuff? She started to map the stars she saw, but then she remembered that Professor Sandhu said to start with the Big Dipper. Hmm… it seemed more efficient to her to start where she was, rather than have to come back to the Little Dipper later, but she wasn't one to go against directions.

From Polaris, Tina moved her telescope down and a little to the left to find the Big Dipper. There it was! Now came the hard part… actually mapping the stars using those weird hand measurements! Extending her left arm, she started measuring the distance between Merak and Dubhe, the front two stars in the Big Dipper that formed an imaginary line to Polaris. She jotted down her measurements as she plotted the two stars, labeling and marking each with a tiny drawing of a star. Then she moved on to the other stars in the Big Dipper, measuring with her hand as she went.

When she was done, Tina examined the finished product. It looked exactly like the constellation she saw in her telescope, but had she done it right? Were her measurements even remotely accurate? She cross-referenced the scale to make sure. Surely this couldn't be as complicated as she was making it out to be! It was a star chart, for Flamel's sake! This was first year stuff. For now she was going to chalk her difficulty up to lack of sleep and soldier on the best she could. Maybe she'd be able to come back to it later with fresh eyes and figure out any mistakes she made.

Once she was reasonably confident that the measurements she had so far were accurate (or at least close to it), Tina followed the imaginary line back up to Polaris and the Little Dipper with her telescope. Using her ruler, compass, and hand measurements, she proceeded to plot those stars to the best of her abilities, taking a quick moment to scrutinize her work after drawing the last star. Now what? Should she try mapping out other constellations too?

Pulling her precious Slytherin scarf carefully closer around her neck Holly tried to think of the practical uses of Astronomy…. Biting her lip as she thought, the Scottish-raised girl tried to come up with something different than what her classmates had said. Creatures, plants, animagi, lycanthropy…. “Well.. I know it sort of goes hand in hand with herbology, Professor - but there are a lot of potions we have been taught so far that are strongest with a full moon… either for making the potion or for the actual ingredients… I think I read that the polyjuice potion needs ingredients picked during a full moon to work…” She trailed off, because she was in no way strong enough with potions to have actually made that potion; though it hadn’t stopped her from reading up on it.

The Slytherin moved her quill over her parchment as quickly as she dared, noting down what had been copied onto the board, figuring she could rewrite it later when she wasn’t in a rush to not hold the whole class up. Seven planets. Seven organs. Eclipses and metals and elements but not toxic mercury. Never experiment with it. Got it. She looked up and down between her parchment and the board making sure she had noted everything down in such a way she’d be able to decipher it later. Nodding as she finished (although not really to anyone in particular), she placed her quill down on her desk so that the Professor knew she was happy with her notes. Thankyouforwaiting.

…. If it was her, how would she keep track? “Is it like keeping a diary, Professor? But instead of quidditch games and homework dates you’d write down the important astronomical dates so that you are aware of them as they come? Eclipses and full moons, etc.?” It sounded right to her, but astronomy had never been her strongest subject …. Oh… They were called star and moon charts. Her classmates were using their right names and she bit her lip as she wrote that down under her notes. She knew that… kinda. Well, not really…. But she’d know it now. She needed too -- otherwise she might need to start thinking about getting some extra help before her OWLs next year. There was no way she was failing… not when her brother was so amazing. Nuuh.

Right. Star charts. Blinking, the fourth year rubbed at her eyes before pulling her curly hair into a very messy bun. Humming slightly to herself, she spoke herself through the process of making the charts (it had been a while) as she set up her telescope (thankfully, second nature by now). As she positioned it by her desk, she made sure she had only what she needed out; putting everything else safely away in her bag. Too many things on the desk and they’d just get in the way of her ruler which would make her map a mess. No, neat and tidy was definitely the way to go.

Satisfied, Holly leant forward slotting her eye against the end of the telescope and focused it so that she could see the stars properly… and then she searched for polarus. It took her longer than she would have liked to admit, but she got there in the end. That meant she found the little dipper…. And using her finger first with her arm outstretched she noted how far apart the stars were as she marked them down on her chart. Moving between one finger, three, fist and Y measurements she hummed and muttered to herself as she worked her way through the first constellation.

It took her longer than she would have liked. Perhaps that meant she needed to do these more often. Hmm. That wasn’t ideal, but at least it wasn’t an arduous process like some of their recent potion exercises had been.

Anyway. On to the big dipper.

Yes, well, while none of them had to worry about points being docked for wrong answers, Simran was still very much in the business of giving points for very good ones. It was really too bad the question and answer section of today's lesson was over, though.

Everyone did seem to be getting on with the activity well, and it made Simran proud (even though this pride was almost entirely misplaced). Even the first years seemed to have found the asterisms with relative ease, and many students had moved on to plotting other constellations in the general vicinity. "Good work, everyone!"

"Now," she said, clearing her throat to get everyone's attention. "As we know, Christmas is coming, and while I'm a Buddhist and all the symbolism is lost on me, it's a nice time of year all the same." There was mulled wine and hot cocoa and singing songs that made no sense. And Christmas Trees. Simran loved a well-decorated tree.

And on that note, several large Christmas trees hopped into the Observatory and set themselves up around the perimeter. "I thought we'd do some preparation for the season together, and also experience a little zero-gravity while we're at it. So if you would all put your things against a wall, we can move the furniture and start." She'd wait.

Once the students had dismantled their telescopes and the furniture had carefully arranged itself away from the general main area, Simran cast a containment charm and then pulled a vial from her sleeve. Oh, she loved undetectable extension charms. And Anti-Gravity Mist.

Once she uncorked the bottle, the faint gold mist seemed to really be too much to have fit into the bottle in the first place. It filled Simran's general vicinity first, before slowly spreading. However, thanks to the containment spell, it did stayed visibly contained in a circle in the centre. Summoning the large box of astronomy-themed ornaments, she threw handfuls haphazardly into the air, watching gleefully as they took flight.

All the ornaments now airborne, she took a look around at the students, and smiled. "If you're wondering why you're not floating, it's inertia," she said, and promptly leapt into the air and stayed there.

"We've got until the end of the lesson to decorate. I say go nuts. Just don't break anything." The french headmistress would certainly have things to say about that. "There's also a good amount of tinsel and other assorted ornaments behind my desk, but I'll get those once we run out of these here."

Meanwhile, she'd just... swim in the air for a bit. It was less restricting than swimming through water, primarily because water was far denser than air, and was really quite freeing. If the mist wasn't as expensive as it was, she'd do it far more often. It was almost good consolation for not making it into the Astronaut programme.

OOC: Hey guys, this is our final activity! You'll have another 4 days to have your students experience zero-gravity with Simran, catch a couple shooting stars, and decorate the observatory for Christmas. Knock yourselves out!

Claudine looked up from her star chart, her fingers on it as she tried to figure out measurements. This entire activity had confused her and as a result, there had been many intervals whereby she had a frown on her face. When Sandhu called for their attention, this was one such time. Good work? Claudine wasn’t entirely sure she had done so well. "My chart is fully rubbish,'' she muttered to Bernie.

The mention of Christmas brought a small smile to her lips, however. She loved the holiday with all her heart. Much to her delight, the room was suddenly filled with Christmas trees.

Zero gravity?

Well, this was certainly interesting. She quickly put her belongings into her bag which was then put against the wall as instructed. The Snakette watched, her serious, dark eyes fixed on the bottle then on the contents as they spread. Her face didn’t reflect it now but she was certainly entertained and excited when the ornaments went airborne.

So that’s what they had to do.

Imagine floating and swimming around in air.

Without further hesitation, Claudine followed Sandhu’s example and jumped into it.

Hello, zero- gravity.

"It's just like Wendy in Peter Pan," Cecelia whispered to herself, watching the golden mist in the air and the way the professor and the ornaments floated around over her head. It was SO cool and the first year jumped up and down excitedly, thinking this was SO MUCH BETTER than star charts. ...No offense to star charts or anything.

Bending down, the first year JUMPED up as HIGH as she possibly could and then she was in the air, feet off the ground, and experiencing the freedom that was zero-gravity. It was just as wonderful as she'd imagined, honestly.

"Come on, guys, the air up here is GREAT!" And she, Cecelia Summers, was living her BEST life.

Slowly but surely, the small blonde got the hang of swimming through the air towards a beautiful ornament that looked like a crescent moon and she snatched it with a smile, admiring how pretty it was. Was it really, truly glowing or was that just her?

Now she just had to get to one of those trees! Good thing she was good at swimming, honestly.

Ah, so they would be making star charts today. Avalon found herself practicing the hand measurements while Professor Sandhu explained them. First a pinky finger outstretched, then three fingers, then a fist, and finally a Y. Now to put all those ideas to the test.

Once her telescope was assembled, she peered through the glass in the general direction of the North. Polaris should be up there somewhere, right? After a few moments of squinting and adjusting, she noticed a star that shined just a bit brighter than the others. And nearby she could just barely make out the Little Dipper. Aha. That had to be it! Which meant that the Big Dipper had to be close by. Indeed, Avalon found Dubhe, one of the outer stars of the constellation, without too much trouble. But it seemed that the hard part would be measuring.

It took the young Ravenclaw a few tries before she was satisfied with her result. The first time, she splattered some ink on her parchment. The second time, her ruler moved while she was drawing a line. That just would not do. The third time, she questioned the validity of her 10-degree fist measurement and had to start over again. Avalon supposed that the fourth time was the charm, because she was finally satisfied with her result.

Thankfully, Avalon didn't have to wait long, as the professor began wrapping up the activity shortly after she finished. Tucking her parchment neatly into her textbook, her eyes widened as Professor Sandhu zero-gravity. Floating around in the air WHILE decorating for Christmas? Now that was an activity Avalon could definitely get into. She could barely contain her excitement as she bounded over the center of the room. With a confident hop, she leapt into the air.

Oh my goodness. This was SO cool. It was like flying, but you didn't even need a broomstick! She spun around a few times, pretending like she was a ballerina. Pirouettes were much easier without the effect of gravity, apparently. Floating by the two first years (Claudine and Cecelia), she couldn't help but grin. "This is so fun!" she called to them, twirling once more. Avalon grabbed a few ornaments as they floated by, soaring over to place them on the top boughs of the Christmas trees. Now if she could only figure out how to use an anti-gravity charm to decorate her Christmas tree in her bedroom at home!

Wendy in who?

Claudine was a pureblood and her knowledge on Muggle things were lost on her. Though, she had picked up a few things here and there because of Bernie and her heritage. As it was at present, she had made her way into the air and was just hovering there uncertainly. “Erm… it’s okay?’’ she replied distractedly to the Ravenclaw (Avalon). It was a little disarming at first because she had to get used to the feeling of being weightless. Then there was figuring out the movements… how to move about, actually. Claudine actually floated about aimlessly for a good few minutes before she got a hang of ‘swimming’. Except that she wasn’t in water. What she also needed to do was to try not to bump into anyone.

What she needed to bump into were a few ornaments… there was actually a sparkly one in the form of Saturn. Claudine reached out to pluck it out of the air. It was rough to touch because of all the glitter but nevertheless, it was in her hand and Claudine was swimming her way over to a tree.

"So fun," The first agreed enthusiastically, smiling at the older Ravenclaw girl. "You're really good at this!" Cecelia was getting there, but she was much better on a broom. Some might say she was a natural.

When she'd made it to the tree, she found the BEST branch she could to hang her moon ornament on. It was high up, too, which everyone KNEW was the best spot for an important ornament like that one.

Turning was a big harder when you were floating, had anyone else noticed? The small blonde had to try a couple times to get herself facing in the right direction again, but once she had, she was off in search of more ornaments.

Gunnar had managed to finish his star chart fairly quickly and with relative ease. He wasn't sure how precise it would be, but maybe that didn't matter so much. He always thought his fingers to be long and spaced out generously from his years of playing piano, so he wondered if his measurements would be different than those of someone with smaller hands.

But he didn't wonder for long since it was time to move on. Oh.....Christmas decorating? Gunnar paused a moment, unsure that he really wanted to indulge in such trivialities, especially when he was already so tired. But he soon decided to simply allow himself to relax. He already had enough stress to deal with lately. Maybe a mindless end to a lesson was a good thing.

He stepped over and into the gold mist, and immediately began floating. Being weightless was kind of relaxing. Leaning back a bit, he just sort of hung out there, allowing the younger girls to take over decorating.

She swam and swam and woops.

She revolved after bumping into someone. Claudine wasn’t even sure who it was since she immediately started doing a three sixty and there were her classmates quite nearby. “Watch where you’re going,’’ she managed to say somewhat furiously. It took some effort but she finally righted herself in the direction she wanted to go.

Swim, swim.

Closer and closer to a tree she got and as she reached her target, Claudine stretched her hand out that held the sparkly Saturn. She happened to be holding it by the rings but had no trouble slipping the string onto a branch near the top.

One ornament down, many more to go.

As easy as Kaiser was making the star chart out to be, he was glad nevertheless to move on from it. Typically lessons ended with more active, arguably more fun activities, so it wasn't terribly out of the question for him to suspect that this lesson might do just that.

And it sounded like he was right. Zero gravity, then? Well... that could be... interesting. Kaiser did as instructed and moved his things out of the way, and tried not to look too dubious.

It wasn't the gravity part he was uncertain about, but the tree thing. He hadn't decorated a christmas tree in... ever? Yes, that sounded about right. Definitely not since he was four years old, and he couldn't recall very much about the holidays from before that time. Kaiser was unsure if this was really his thing, but he'd float too, sure.

And he did. As soon as they were given the go ahead, Kaiser pushed off lightly from the balls of his feet, and glided upwards. It was weird. A little too weird. Not... not exactly like flying a broom, but close enough to it that Kaiser was fairly certain he wasn't much of a fan - in both instances there was the sense of being in the air totally unsupported. No. Nope. Don't like that.

Climbing was better. With climbing, you had something to keep you grounded. With this, Kaiser was literally adrift. He mostly just focused on trying to stay upright and avoiding crashing into anyone. Tree decorating, who?

Wrinkles. She was going to have wrinkles. That's how hard a time she was having with her star chart. So she was glad when Professor Simran announced that it was time to move on. And though the activity really had nothing to do with star charts, it seemed like a fun one.

Daila launched herself into the air carefully. She didn't want to crash into anyone or a tree. Nope. She floated in the air for a bit, trying to get her bearings before scooping up another shining Saturn and slipping it onto a branch towards the middle of a tree.

The sound of the main activity brought a smile on the fourteen year old's face. Decorating Christmas trees was, yeah, something he wasn't good at but it reminded him a LOT of home. But with less hot chocolate and more zero-gravity.

Which, by the way, he was VERY excited for.

It took him longer than he would've liked to put all his things away but eventually, Lucas had dismantled his telescopes and placed his things over..... there. By the wall and away from the place where all the zero-gravity things would be happening. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Yeah.

And that golden mist? While it was only similar to the mist back at Hogwarts in name, it gave him a completely different feeling. His eyes widened slightly as he watched it spread around, but it was only when the ornaments were thrown in the air that he let out a small gasp. It was like being a kid all over again.

When Sandhu gave the word, Lucas wasted no time in jumping off the ground and into the air. The zero-gravity air that was making him float. He was FLOATING. The smile was instantaneous and not even looking down could wipe it away. He even wiggled his feet back and forth just to test it, and then starting trying to swim upwards. Even higher. As high as he could go.

Was this how astronauts felt in space?

It was only when he was swimming around and getting used to the feeling of zero-gravity that his eyes landed on...... the sun. Or a bright bauble that LOOKED like it could be the sun. It even seemed to be glowing and looked like it could radiate heat if it wanted to.

That was his bauble of choice.

Lucas started doing his best to swim towards it while it just floated in mid-air. It was..... trickier than he thought, trying to swim towards something and not just swim around wherever he wanted. And he wasn't really an athlete - wrong Dakest sibling - so he wasn't really surprised when his arms and calves started hurting from all the swimming.

He grabbed the Sun out of the air, something he never thought he'd ever get to think let alone do kind of. But this was only half the journey, wasn't it? The other half was swimming straight towards one of the trees that needed a bauble. Or a STAR. The sun was technically a star, it had to go at the top. Had to.

With the bauble in one hand, the Gryffindor started swimming again. Or doing his best to. Swimming, as it turned out, was hard and he found himself trying to take as many deep breaths as possible on his way. The bauble he was holding onto made it harder because he was..... steering with one hand? His left hand. Yeah. And gearing more and more towards the right side.

Okay. This was.... okay.

Lots of strokes and deep breathing later, and he was close enough to the target to come to a - very grateful! - stop. The tree had some decoration on it, and he didn't know who was working on it, just that it needed something on top. And that's where he came in. The smile was still there as he held up the Sun and placed it right on top of the tree, watching as it glowed brightly.

There.

Now. Could he just.... float away? Forget about the ornaments and enjoy being in zero-gravity?

Cole was measuring up Orion on his star chart when Professor Sandhu ended the activity and replaced it with Christmas tree decorating and zero gravity floating. He hung back taking time to carefully dismantle his telescope because he didn't want to drop it a second time that night. That result could be catastrophic. With his telescope and other belongings moved away along with the furniture Cole headed over to the inertia and felt how he floated upwards towards the ornaments and his peers. It was pretty wicked and fun to just float around and not needing to worry about falling down. Smiling broadly over at Professor Sandhu, all tiredness forgotten Cole called over "This is awesome Professor! Zero gravity floating is so cool!" Grabbing a big glowing star out of the air along with some other assorted ornaments he swam over towards the nearest christmas tree and started to happily decorate it.

Simran, too, was having a great deal of fun decorating. She did it often, sometimes even breaking using the key Amrita gave her for emergencies to get into her granddaughter's apartment, and move furniture around the place. Decorating for Christmas, while not really a spiritual thing for her, was as close as it got to being a religious experience without actually being one.

The sight of all the students enjoying themselves (except, maybe, Kaiser and Miss Blaze) and decorating trees and enjoying themselves always made her feel so very happy.

"Glad you're enjoying it, Mister Vance," she called after the Gryffindor who'd addressed her directly, smiling with pride at her own idea. "Makes me wish I had made it into astronaut training, most of the time."

Checking her watch, Simran noted that they didn't really have much time to spare. A shame, really, but these spells only had a certain amount of time before their effects wore off and they got rather jerky towards the end. And things in here really did not need to be broken -- she'd like to be able to retain use of the Observatory for the rest of the year.

"Now, everyone, I'm afraid our time here is up." Yes, it made her sad too. She really had been enjoying this, you see. "For homework, I will need you to complete mapping out the sky as visible from the Observatory by the end of the next week. Please only use one night. It shouldn't take you more than a few hours, and with the sun setting earlier, you should be finished before curfew. I will be here each night to plot my own chart, and will be reachable if need help."

"Please hang any remaining ornaments --" There weren't many, but she would rather not have them crash to the ground in a few hours. "-- on the trees, try to steer yourselves downward so you don't have too much of a fall as you get your things, and I will see you all in class."

Or, at least, those of you who took Astronomy.

For now, though, she would just... begin clearing up. And remind herself to wake up early and put the desks back where they should be.

OOC: Thank you all for coming to our first Astronomy lesson of the term! It's been SUCH a blast having you here, you're all stars.