Astonomy Lesson 1
 

You ascend into a completely circular room at the top of the highest tower. The walls are completely made of floor to ceiling windows, except a metre wide section for a fire, giving an almost 360 degree view of the surrounds. Accessible through an almost invisible break is the glass is a wide stone balcony that completely encircles the room. There is a charm around the doorway that stops the stinging wind from entering.

The room is vast, having been expanded by magic. In it stands a very large and magnificent telescope that can reach even the most distant stars, its lenses pointing out through the glass wall, which actually revolves so that it can be turned any direction. On the balcony stand many smaller telescopes on tripods, and inside are about 30 small wooden desks shaped like stars and moons with very comfortable high backed chairs. They are arranged around a large Mahogany desk shaped like a crescent moon, with a similar chair… Professor Dainsie’s desk.

Ok everyone, pile in for the first lesson!

Mithos walks in the Astronomy classroom and sits in the very first seat. wow.. he thinks as he looks around the classroom. Mithos puts his book on the table ready for class.

Jamie walked in the class an sat in her regular spot she unpacked her books and sat on her desk and put her quill in her ink, and waited for the lesson to start.

Mithos heard some one come in so he turned back and smiled...

Kali enters the classroom and chooses a seat.


"Hello Professor Dainsie, how was your summer?"

Nadia starts her first day of classes with enthusiasm. Astronomy, how curious, being that it was at night (ooc: seems she didn't have any morning lessons, lol). She set her stuff, her telescope at hand, and waited for th class to begin.

"Good mor - I mean, night, professor Dansie," she greeted her once sat.

:: Lauren walked into the room. She smiled at the teacher and went to a desk. She looked around the room and took out her note pad and quill ready to take notes.::

jenn takes out parchment and quill ready to take notes on professor Dainsie's lecture as she snaps to face the professor, ready to prove herself in this new magical world

Diana takes out her writing equipment as she waits for the class to start.

*Zekk sits down at a desk and waits*
can't wait for it to start! i love night classes

Mithos looks around the classroom and sees some empty seats, he takes out parchment and quill. He opens his book and starts reading it while the class doesn't start...

*sits down next to Mithos, and takes out a quill and notebook to take notes*

"hey mithos, when will class begin. Hello professor."

*smiles and waits*

Mithos looks at Victoria "Hello Victoria, where have you been? i haven't seen you at all! I have no idea when class will begin i have been waiting here for quite long... i hope very soon..." says Mithos

Hayley walked into the classroom. She was happy to start a new class, "Hello Professor!" She greeted her teacher and sat down next to Jessica.

Angel walks in and finds a desk. She then proceeds to get her ink and quill out a long with parchment. When she is done with that she then proceeds to look around the room to see if any one that she knows is here. She spots Mithos and waves.

Mithos waves back to Angel!

*Alicia walks into the classroom taking a seat by the glass wall to the back of the circular room. She then proceeds to take out her materials and watches all th people noticing that she doesnt know any of them for Keni'sgirl who she has seen around the school before*

Jamie saw that Mithos had smiled at her. She looked at him and smiled back very genuinly.

*looks at Mithos and smiles*

"I've been around, you know, meeting new people. Yeah know. Anyways, hows it been, I hope it begins soon. I've been good if you wanted to know.

*turns to my note book and begins to doddle with my quill*

Francis smiles as she takes her seat quietly. She smiles at the Professor, happy to be back.

"I wonder what we will be doing first" she said to Mithos

*Alicia looks over at the girl who just came in saw from the smile that she too was glad to be back. alicia leans over to her whispers "I love astronomy dont you? Its nice to study something thats so...well not earth bound. Ya know what i mean? Studying the heavens"

*alicia starts humming quietly to herself as she gazes out the windows at the endless starry sky noticing that the stars always seemed brighter in the winter*

Welcome!
 

Shannon raises her hand. "Astronomy is the study of celestial bodies and the universe as a whole."

Francis raises her hand, "Astronomy is the scientific study of matter in outer space, especially the positions, dimensions, distribution, motion, composition, energy, and evolution of celestial bodies and phenomena."

She also grabs a lollie and places it near her quill. She wants to eat it later on the class.

Serena grabbed a strawberry lolly and then sat back down.
She raised her hand and added,
"Astronomy is a system of knowledge or beliefs about celestial phenomena and their are various astronomies described by ancient civilizations.
The Bible is actually one source. The constellations are distinguished and named like the morning star, the seven stars, Pleiades, Orion, Arcturus, the Great Bear, the crooked serpent, Draco, the Dioscuri, or Gemini, Castor and Pollux. Stars are also referred to as "the host of heaven".
Divisions of time were based on the observation of the movements of the heavenly bodies and led to dividing years into months. The zodiac, named by the Greeks, came from the mapping out of the stars appearances divided into twelve portions.
Astronomical observations were necessary in history to set, or keep the right time for sacred ceremonies."

Lesley walks in the class room and take a seat by the glass wall and takes her books out hoping that she is not late.

*grabs a lolly and raises her hand* Astronomy is the scientific study of matter in outer space, especially the positions, dimensions, distribution, motion, composition, energy, and evolution of celestial bodies and phenomena.

Jacallia walks in and quickly takes a seat. She hates being new, she can't find anything. She hopes she is not too late though.

Rosa sits down and waves her hand up in the air. then she says: 'it comes from the greec words astros, star, and logos, word. I think it's giving stars names and stuff and studying their movements. people on sea navigate using the stars.' she wonders if she made a complete fool of herself or only a half one and quickly opens her astrology book and hides behind it.

::Erica supressed a scream and, with as much composure as she could muster, stood up and grabbed a lolly. She then made her way back to her seat. She pulled out some parchment and a quill, unwrapped her lolly and stuck it in her mouth. Mmmmmm.....pure bliss. She was liking Astronomy already.::

Nadia helped herself with some lollypop and it was having it stuffed in her mouth that stopped her from responding earlier.

"It is the study of the celestial bodies and everything from the earth out =P It includes the study of the planets, from the interior and exterior both, and the composition of space with as much knowledge as we can get. It is finding explanations and describing the outherspace. Astro means star, -nomy (from L. -nomi) is for refering to 'theory'. English astronomie, from Old French, from Latin astronomia, from Greek astronomi."

Nadia heard wizcat and adds, "I beg to differ. You see, Astro+logos would make Astrology, not Astronomy. Those are quite differnt. Though by the sound of it the first name dos applies in this case, logos does means 'word' and 'thought' and 'expression'. Complicate word, isn't it?" She shook her head. "Sorry, drifted away."

*quickly takes a seat and pulls out parchment and quill ready to take down anything of use*

*raises hand* Astronomy is the scientific study of celestial bodies, phenomena and all realms of outer space

*Alicia also helps herself to a lolliepop and whispers to Nadia "good answer!" then raises her hand and says "Astronomy is the study of the universe and the objects in it. Astronomers use telescopes that gatherinvisible light and invisible forms of energy to veiw the sky. they investigatenearby bodies such as the sun, planets, comets,as well as far off galaxies. They aslo study the structure of spaceand past and future of the universe"

Mithos raises his hand *clears throat*

"Astronomy.. the brach of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole. It is also defined as star-gazing. In Astronomy there are included astrochemics, astrograpohy, astrolithology, astrology, astrometry, astrophysics, slenology and uranology."

sabina lookz around feeling like she should have dropped this subject a long time ag0 despite its being s0 interesting

raises hand and adds "Astronomy found its beginings when early human beings recognised the inevitable influence of celestial bodies on their everyday lives. This fueled their fascination with the heavens. Ancient sky watchersshifted from mysticism to mathematics. This is how the science of astronomy was born.

Whispers. "Bout this? A little..."

Feeling that the definition had been quite completely covered, Aixla decided to pose a question that had been bothering her for a few days now. "Professor, how much do wizards know about astrology as compared to muggles? I mean, my dad just sent me a copy of an article about the Casini mission to Titan. They think that Titan has a methane cycle similar to our water cycle. Is that the kind of thing the wizard community knows? I mean, we don't have space shuttles or probes or anything."

Evy sits at her place, listening to all the people answering the question. She doesn't dare to raise her hand and patiently wait for the teacher to introduce the subject of the lesson.

She agrees with Aixla though and wonders what the teacher will say 'bout that.

Angel also realizes that the question has been answered to the fullest extent. She decides to ponder on the question that aixle had asked. It was a good question after all. Did muggles know more then us or do we know more then them?

Anelreas entered the Astronomy Room with a tired look on her face. She found an open seat in the back of the room and took a seat. She heard answers being shouted out as to what Astronomy was. She took out a piece of parchment and began writing tid bits of what the other students were saying. This was her first year of Astronomy and she did not know much about the subject, if anything, but was deeply intrigued on the subject.

Hearing the question possed by one of the Gryffindor Students, Ashley raised her hand to add a point "Muggles are actually very advanced when it comes to Astronomy. It has fascinated them for decades and they have come up with numerous capabilites to explore the vast areas of the universe. Muggle scientists are now discovering that the planet Pluto might not even be a planet at all, but merely a collection of interplanetary dust and "junk". I personally think that because of the capabilities Muggles have come up with, they know a lot more about the starfield than given credit for."

Mithos agrees with Ashley and says "Yes, muggles use their technology to study Astronomy.. i agree with Ashley! I don't know much about them but i have read book about Muggles and their technolony.."

Mithos smiled back...

Rosie writes down everything that everyone had said. She was surprised at how much everyone knew, and assumed that anything she would have said, would end up being a repeat of something said already. She sits in her seat, and waits for Professor Dainsie to continue.

Anelreas looked up from her piece of parchment and recognized one of the girls in the classroom. Anelreas thought that she looked like the one who had been with Nadia the night Nadia had gotten a bit crazy with butterbeer. She wasn't sure, but she knew the girl looked familiar.

Evy was getting bored by all the whispering in the class. She decided to look out the window instead and tried to clear her mind.

" But some Muggle things have been caused by wizards. For example when A muggle sees a ' flying star ' it could be a simple spell. So a lot of things are fake. " Jake said from the back of the room.

Eric nodded at Jake. "The 'shooting star' could also be a muggle satellite," he said.

Alicia adds "Sumarians and ancient greeks also studied astronomy. But that far back... the ones that studied and made the first findings could have had magic blood coouldnt. Just how long has the magical community been hidden? This was back in ancient times.

alicia then raises her hand again and says to the professor "We have kind of gone off topic a bit though professor, what is todays lesson about? Maybe in a future lesson we could dig deeper into the orgins of astronomy and the muggle-magic relationships there?

Amy raised her hand.
"Wuh-" Amy took the blueberry lolli from her mouth and continued. "Professor, does Muggle knowledge of the known universe advance our own knowledge?"

Francis looks around and smiles. She then decides to put her lolly on her mouth.

Quote:

"We have kind of gone off topic a bit though professor, what is todays lesson about? Maybe in a future lesson we could dig deeper into the orgins of astronomy and the muggle-magic relationships there?

i agree professor, although these topics are very interesting and i would love to know the answer, if you dont mind can we start from the beginning? this is the first time i have taken this class and i'm a little lost at this point....

Jenn ponders all the questions and answers asked and given and then realizes that astronomy may be the most muggle-ish subject. She hopes to discover many magical parts of astronomy she never learned in muggle school before she came.

Xavier ponders the question and then raises his hand. "Isn't it the study of the skies?"

Anelreas twirled her quill in her fingers. Though her eyes were focused on her paper, having started a small drawing on it, her ears listened to everything going on in the room.

'Things will be taught as the Professor has planned them out.' She thought, a bit annoyed. She did not speak her words aloud. She was expected to be kind to the rest of the students and did not plan on getting detention or points reducted from her house by not abiding by the rules.

It was best to keep quiet and to herself.

Mithos raises his hand "Astronomy can also be a way of telling the future, isn't it Professor?"

Hayley smiled back at Jessica, then turned her attention to the professor. She raised her hand, " Astronomy is the scientific study of matter in outer space, especially the positions, dimensions, distribution, motion, composition, energy, and evolution of celestial bodies and phenomena."

*looks at everyone and thinks about there anwsers*

Everyone sure does know a lot of things. I wonder how Mithos knows so much, he said this was his first year. The professor sure is silent, I wonder why. I cant wait till she begins to teach about Astronomy. Thinking about it some more, decides to just listen and takes notes.

As Mithos hears all this Shooting Star thing he says "A shooting star isn't a star its a meteor, a meteor resembling a star seen falling or darting through the sky at night."
'and they call themselves better than first years...' he thinks as he rolls his eyes *hump*

*looks at Mithos and grins*

"well, if it isnt mr.know-it-all."she said to him silently

*giggles*

"well yeah, a meteor is a shoting star. We all know that, but yeah, thats all I can say, I really cant remember anything from the muggle school during science. I also remember that its got something about being to close to the planet and that the stars we can see aren't really there, we're just so much slower than space that it looks that way. So if you were to look for it in space, it wouldn't be there. Thats all I know, I'm no genious. How do you know so much, your a first year." she said this very quietly so only they would hear it.

*leans back into her chair and smiles*

Mithos turns to Victoria and whispers "Its all the library, if you go there and study before class it will all be really easy when you come to class" Mithos smiles "Besides i have been reading books that are for second years..." Mithos looks back up to the Professor

Nadia blinked at being watched like that by the Ravenclaw girl (LilRavenclaw). Surely she meant no disrespect but she surely was making Nadia flush (she also thanked Ailicia for her compliment, her blush worsening). She was not the only one and Nadia was surprised to realize one of the gazing was coming from Ganymede from all people. She blinked once more puzzled by her behaviour, and was only drawn out from her reverie when hearing the other students. She only responds to one single question.

"No, I'm afraid," Nadia told. "You are mistaking it with the art of Astronomy, which is a way of divination you might learn about in Riddle's class. While the both arts have a fragment of the word in common, 'star', they are two different things but people do tend to mistake it. The reason we study Astronomy and not Astrology which seems much more magical is that we need to know the position of the planets, as wizards, to determine may things. A potion, for example, might work much better under the influence of the full moon, like in the case of some beautifying potions. Others wll only work at a particular time of the day, or even a particular date in the year, milllenium, etc. The only thing that can give us the dates of these happening, to be preppared for it when the time comes. Astronomy is as useful to muggles as it is to wizards, maybe even more to us."

She finished her speech and realized, once more, that she had disgressed. She groaned despite herself, honestly, she couldn't just shut her mouth. Moreover, she had been just before about to ask people to slow down, to give the professor the opportunity to present an answer though the noise. When this girl called this other boy a know-it-all Nadia was suprised it was not directed to her, as many other times. Well, with some luck, she might be able to get ride of that ridiculous nickname, she thought...

*looks at Mithos, amazed*

"Well, then I'll have to try that then, wont I. You'll be getting a challenge from me soon. I'll become the Mrs.know-it-all. I mean, you need someone to compete with you, it will make both of us work harder." still only talking to Mithos.

*giggles and smiles*

Wow!
 

Francis nods and writes down her homework in her Homework Quill. Then she adds, "Professor, I was wondering if we can discuss our galaxy and the Earth.. as well as the planets in our galazy. I know last year we discussed stars and their evolution, and I was.. kinda hoping that we would focus on how that knowledge help us understand the place we live in" she said with a smile.

Nadia pouted disappointed that her answer had received no points, not even for her a participation in the debate - though she thought the debate would arise her rage, not be rewarded. But the real disappointment was hearing the homework. She had already did that HW so it meant she had nothing to do that night, probably the only person who could feel disappointed over having the evening free. She sighed and listened to the conversation, waiting for an interesting question to arise.

Nadia titled her head at the suggestion of studying the solar system planets, again. She tried to think of what SHE would like to study that wasn't studied already...

"Professor," she started. "Do you think we could study some of the history of Astronomy, as in the important people involved, the theories and so on. Copernico, Galileo Galiley (sp?), St. Thomas? Also re-studying some constellations, as we had already started a couple of years ago, the star maps. And..."

She paused and thought it over before saying it, "To start a debate, I would ask if the universe is infinite. It is says it grows but then again, infinite can grow? And would be beyond infinite?" she smiled, she always loved that kind of debates.

Mithos smiles "Thank you professor." Mithos writes down the homework

ooc: sorry for the ooc, but what is the # for the hw is it the lesson #? sorry again...

"Thanks, professor."

::Erica noted the homework in her planner and packed up her stuff. She then snuck to the lollipop cupboard and took one more lollipop. Man, this was some good stuff, she couldn't help thinking as she exited the classroom.::

"Infinite, but still growing... I would call that a scientifically interesting question," Drusilla whispers to Nadia.

She could see Nadia wasn´t pleased at all of not having any new homeworks. “Psst! You could always write a few new lines. But be careful not to write more than five, though."

Having several green lollies in her pocket, leaves the classroom to do this term´s first homeworks. Astronomy is so nice, the first homework is always something easy, she guesses.

Anelreas waited until the majority of the class was gone before packing her own things up. She had no desire to walk with the rushing crowd.

"Thank you professor," Xavier says while packing up his bag. "I really enjoyed the lesson." He gets up and leaves the classroom.

"Or perhaps we can track some of the new discoveries and experiments done in the Muggle and Wizarding world?" she adds. "I have heard about all sort of weird machines they use to keep track of stars, and perhaps we can discuss some of these discoveries" she tried to explain..

Jacallia listens to the talk going on as everyone leaves the class. She knows she knew very little of the subject, that's why she took the class. But she didn't notice how little she knew. She now knew who to ask for help though.

She grabs a couple of suckers and walks out tossing her bag over her sholder.