Astronomy Class with Professor Hubble

[Nie]

Up the winding stairs at the top of one of the tallest towers of the Hogwarts castle is the main Astronomy classroom. It's a very large, round room. Only the first three and a half feet of the round wall is stone, and from there, all the way up to the top of the domed ceiling, is glass, giving you an amazing veiw of the night sky. You can also see most of the Hogwarts grounds from this room.

Lined up around about half of the room against the stone part of the wall are tilted desks with large sheets if parchment. Next to each desk is a delicate and ornate telescope pointing out towards the dark, glitter dusted night sky.

To one side is a larger desk with a larger, even more ornate telescope. Sitting in the wooden and purple velvet cushioned chair is an older looking man in slightly dusty and frayed looking, but still very nice green robes. He's wearing silver, half moon spectacles, and has grey hair just past his shoulders, a grey, curled moustache, and a slightly pointed goatie hanging from his chin. He occasionally looks around to smile at a student entering the classroom , but mostly he gazes through his telescope adn jots down small notes which seem out of place in the other wise blank, enormous sheet of parchment.

Suddenly, a little bell dings itself once. Its obviously a reminder to the Professor that class should be starting now because he stands up and faces the class smiling, looking each student over in turn with enthusiasm.

A new year, a new school, for me at the very least, and a fresh new batch of potential Astronomers for me to enlighten in the ways and language of the stars. Allow me to introduce myself to you. I'm Professor Hubble.

*The little green and silver clad man is almost beaming as he once again looks around at his new class. He seems proud of each of them already*

Now, I know that we've tried our best to rearrange the class timetable so that those of you taking this class have a free period the next morning so you can sleep in a little, or have a free period during the last lesson earlier in the afternoon so you all get a reasonable amount of sleep. If anyone finds they haven't got that, please come and see me after class and we'll see what we can't do for you.

*He winks breifly, then continues*

Now, I'm sure you all already have some inkling of how wonderful and facinating the heavens are. After all, you've all found your way to this class. I trust you all have your copy of "Guide to the Heavens -- A Complete Study Guide for Astronomy" by Aurora Neptune. I'm sure you'll all find it an invaluable little treasure in the weeks to come.

Just so you all know, unless otherwise informed, this classroom is open all evenings while there are no classes being held in it for anyone to come and further their studies. I encourage you all to use it at least occasionally. You'll probably find it rather fun in fact to be able to gaze at the stars of your own accord for a while.

However, for the moment, we're going to use our "Guide to the Heavens" to learn about the various constallations and how to find a few of them. We'll be spending several lessons on this to cover them all, so don't panic if you have trouble finding a few, and of course I'm here to help you or answer any questions you might have.

*Professor Hubble takes a seat again at his desk and opens his own copy of Guide to the Heavens*

Page eleven is where we'll be starting, and the first constallation we're going to get to know is Orion's Belt, also known as The Saucepan in the Southern hemisphere of the world because they see it upside down. Has anyone seen Orion's Belt before?

*He looks around the class hopeful that someone puts up their hand*

[KoNeko]

*raises hand tentatively* Um, I think I've seen it before in the southern hemisphere. I've also seen it in the north just recently. I think Orion's belt is the thing where there are three stars in a row across the sky and they're about the same difference away from each other and just about equal brightness.

[Nie]

Very good! Five points for Hufflepuff. Orion's Belt is three stars in a row, and also another three stars in another stright line going down diagonally from the belt. That's Orion's Sword, and the feature that makes it look like a saucepan in the southern hemisphere.

Now, can anyone tell me who Orion was and why a constellation was named after him? Anyone?

[[ Wiz ]]

*Raises hand*
Professor, er....according to Greek Mythology Orion was a giant hunter who persued the Pleiades (a group of 7 sisters who are another constellation) and was eventually slain by Artemis (Greek god of Marriage and sister of Appollo) and then placed into the sky as a constellation.
Will that do or would you prefer a more theoritical answer?
*Looks at Prof. Hubble*

[Nie]

Very good, Wiz. Five points for Gryffindor. Although Artemis was actually the Goddess of the Hunt.

The Pleiades are also really only part of another constellation, one of the Zodiacs in fact. Does anyone know which Zodiac constellation they are part of?


Note: Just so everyone knows, the points that the teachers hand out in classes don't actually go towards the weekly house cup. It's just part of the roleplaying.

[[ Wiz ]]

*Raises hand*
I'm not sure but I think it's either Leo or Taurus - although I may be entirely wrong of course.

[Nie]

It's the constellation Taurus, just one of the twelve Zodiac signs. Who can tell me the other eleven. There will be extra house points if you can tell them to me in the correct order of the Zodiac.

*he smiles, eyes sparkling*

[hermoine]

*raises her hand slightly, racking her brains to remember the constellations. They had never been of any particular interest to her; in fact she felt that believing in the message they bore was complete nonsense. Nevertheless she said:*

Well there's Capricorn, and Acquarius, not sure if the next's one Pisces, Taurus of course, and....*she hesitated, as she couldn't remember what came next. She decided to just say the ones she knew* There's also Leo, Libra, Scorpion and Sagittarius.

OOC: Hope I got the names right. I always see them on italian channels and of course the names are different there.

[Nie]

A valiant effort, Hermione. You managed to name eight of the twelve zodiac constellations, which was two thirds of them. Two points to Gryffindor for effort.

The twelve signs of the Zodiac in order are Aries the Ram, Taurus the Bull, Gemini the Twins, Cancer the Crab, Leo the Lion, Virgo the Virgin, Libra the Scales, Scorpio the Scorpian, Sagittarius the Archer, Capricorn the Sea Goat, Aquarius te Water Bearer and Pisces the Fish. They are twelve of the most well known constellations in all the world, and tonight we'll be learning what they look like, whe they can be seens and how to plot them.

But first, lets all find out which Zodiac our birthdays fall under if we don;t know already. I, for example, was born in very late May, so I fall under the Zodiac sign of Gemini. If you turn to page twenty three in your books you'll find a chart so you can find out which sign you were born under if you don't know already. I rather fun.

*he grins and starts waving his wand to bring parchments out and set them floating around the classroom for all the students to see. they have all sorts of different pictures on them of all the different zodiacs. they're very pretty*