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Old 11-24-2019, 02:55 PM   #17 (permalink)
laurange


DERP & DMLE
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Kita's pocket
Posts: 5,228

Hogwarts RPG Name:
Aslan Archer
Slytherin
First Year

Hogwarts RPG Name:
Rose Woods
Gryffindor
Second Year

Ministry RPG Name:
Amrita Sandhu
Law Enforcement

Ministry RPG Name:
Laleh Kiani
x9 x6
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½ of Lauralie | Koala | The being in Ern's pocket | Baby Smurf | Prouf member of The Flock

SPOILER!!: Kimothy
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kimothy View Post
Drewett had been there all along, in one of his usual places on the second row close to the wall. He certainly had not forgotten to bring his telescope and abacus which he, in fact, checked almost five times while he was on his way to the Beauxbatons observatory. What a way to give himself unnecessary anxiety, but he was here and ready to focus on school-related activities considering things.

The bottled liquid with the 'do not drink' label did not go unnoticed either. He'd been curious about it, wondering what its purpose would be for today's lesson. Drewett was certain there would be reckless Gryffindors—not that he was generalizing, but the younger ones had quite a train wreck of a reputation—whose curiosity as a driving force would cause, er, trouble. Probably. He hoped not, though.

His green eyes followed back to Professor Sandhu when she began the seminar...with a question. Drewett had thought about it before. Way before, years ago. The Ravenclaw raised his hand, almost sheepishly, to answer. "Some astronomers work in the academia and do research t-to expand the knowledge about the universe, Professor..." he shared, also ruffling his hair as the words came out of his mouth. Something like that.


"Some do, yes," she nodded. She herself was one of those Astronomers who worked in academia. "Though most discoveries of note tend to be results we don't expect, rather than results we were testing for. More "that's funny" than "eureka!", you know?"

She certainly had her fair share of those in her day. These days, her "that's funny"s were more connected to her students making entirely logical arguments, only to entirely lose track and wander far far away with their train of thought.


SPOILER!!: FearlessLeader19
Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19 View Post
Claudine watched wearily as Blake approached her direction and she silently hoped that he wasn’t going to sit next to her. Unfortunately, her hope fell on deaf ears. “Hopefully something that lets you stay away from me,’’ was her remark and not looking at her Housemate. It seemed like she never could shake him and it could be annoying at times. The good thing was that the lesson was getting started and she wouldn’t have to pay him any more attention.

The Snakette raised a hand after some thought. “Consulting,’’ she volunteered when she was called upon. “Surely new and upcoming astronomers would want more information and to hear the opinions of more experienced Astronomers.”


"Well, yes," she said, even as her eyebrows furrowed. This was not quite an answer she'd been expecting, but it was correct all the same. "Though consulting work is usually done for non-Astronomers. When an Astronomer asks another for their opinion, we call it advising, rather than consulting."

Teeny-tiny technicality.


SPOILER!!: hermionesclone
Quote:
Originally Posted by hermionesclone View Post
Sandhu was handing him an envelope? Lucas was...... confused. Yeah. Confused. Eyebrows furrowed, he glanced between her and the envelope she was holding out for him, silently wondering what exactly she had for him. Was it some worksheet he'd given back to her? But why would she put it in an en-

..........

And then it clicked.

His eyes widened and he even let out the tiniest of gasps. "You've done it already?!" If he was being completely honest, he didn't think she'd have it done so soon. Teachers had their own things to do, didn't they? And she was even a Head of House - his Head of House - so she probably had double the work.

But regardless, it was done and ready for him to take. Shuffling forwards, he gave Sandhu a wide smile as he took the envelope, still not believing that it was done. "Thank you! And for getting it done so quickly. I-" He awkwardly stood there for a moment, silently wondering if he should give her a hug for her efforts. But it seemed inappropriate - and he didn't really do hugs - so he mumbled a final "Thank you!" before making his way to his seat. The envelope was placed neatly in his bag while a small red tinge crept up on his cheeks.

When Sandhu started the class, Lucas dropped his bag to the floor and turned his attention back to her. What do Astronomers do for a living? He knew this. And he knew that she knew that he knew this, and it was all because of a letter in an envelope that was tucked away in his bag. "Some study the, uh, celestial bodies and track their progress and motion," he said, his hand up in the air, "See if anything is weird or not doing what it should, you know? OR, just to track the progress during an important event like an eclipse."


A fond smile spread across her face as the young Gryffindor came forward to take his envelope, and she had to restrain the urge to laugh. She'd written many letters of this sort in her day, and after over fifty years of it, it really did not take quite as long now as it used to. It was simply a case of using the phrases she'd used before in different permutations.

All the same, writing Lucas Dakest this letter had not been unpleasant, and there was little reason to put it off. "It was a pleasure," she smiled, and then winked. "It's also part of my job description."

"Well, should is a relative term," she began, but nodded. "Yes, we do largely work to measure and record celestial events."


SPOILER!!: PhoenixRising
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoenixRising View Post
The moment Professor Sandhu addressed the students as a whole, Carsyn set the bottle back down her desk, still frowning at it as her head of house continued on with the first question. She was also mildly confused at the interaction between the professor and Lucas. What was it that she handed Lucas that he wanted her to do? She was ... somewhat friends with Lucas, but apparently not enough. But also, Lucas seemed to be a private person, judging from his red cheeks.

Also, Lucas totally took her answer, since she was going to mention something on studying the stars, which basically the same thing as study celestial bodies. Carsyn raised her hand at long last, "Maybe invent things? Debate on the celestial bodies and their classifications?" Aka, the Pluto debate.


"I'd say that invention is more an engineering thing, and for those in the development side of research and development," she smiled, but nodded all the same. "Debating on classifications is a rare part of the job description, but when something absolutely new is discovered, and there are more than one, it does help to have a few Astronomers help define what it would constitute."

"More often than not, however, definitions are made by the discovering scientists, and as more similar objects are discovered, the similarities are discussed and a category is established."

That being said, the Pluto debate was not a debate. Pluto was not a planet, it was a dwarf planet that had never officially been deemed a planet before the news story had broken in the first place. This had been a fact long before she had been born, she really didn't understand the fuss. If Pluto were to reclassified a planet, there were a couple celestial bodies in the asteroid belt that would also need that reclassification.


"Now, as we've seen, there are many things that Astronomers across the world do as part of their jobs. Some work at discovering new systems and finding things beyond our imaginations, some teach these discoveries to the next generation of astronomers," she chuckling. Yes, and it was difficult enough without people trying to spread misinformation.

"However, what is generally consistent is measurement and recording -- the cornerstone of the scientific method." Did any of them remember their reintroduction to it, last term? "While ancient astronomers used their eyeballs, modern astronomers use charged couple devices, which are more accurate (which sadly do not work around large quantities of magic) to measure things in the night sky. Today, we will be measuring the brightness of the sky itself, also known as skyglow. We're lucky here in the French countryside not to have disgusting amounts of light pollution, which means we should be able to do this experiment without too much difficulty!"

How, you ask? Magic! Well, science, but that was often indistinguishable from magic in the first place. "Now, we all know that telescopes were meant to enhance what the eye can see, and that cameras were made to capture what the eye sees."

Were they still following? Had they gathered what would be happening today and drawn their own conclusions? She gave them a pause for the news to sink in, before she resumed. "Now, if you would come over to the front and collect a camera each from my desk, we're going to calibrate them together, so that we can measure skyglow."

Meanwhile, she used the time to spellotape a sheet of white paper to the blackboard, as the enchanted piece of chalk wrote the procedure on the right hand side of the board. Once the chalk was done and the paper taped evenly, she heaved a sigh and rolled the board slightly left so that the face of the paper was evenly lit, without any shadows. Did everyone have their cameras? Yes? Good. Moving on.

"Follow the instructions on the board to calibrate your devices, and I'll be around to help with settings if you're having trouble." They shouldn't differ from camera to camera, considering that they were all just duplicates of the same. In Simran's defense, it had been difficult enough getting her hands on an analogue camera in the first place. These things were relics!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackboard
  • Position your digital camera so that the white paper fills the entire field of view. The precise distance from the camera to the paper doesn't matter.
    • Use the table as a support. Many of the exposures will be too long for you to hold the camera steady in your hands.
  • Manually adjust the focus so that the camera is focused on the white piece of paper. Once you set the focus, do not change it during the calibration.
  • Set the camera's sensitivity to ISO 200.
  • Set the aperture to f/2.8.
  • Set the image resolution to low.
  • Now that your camera is focused on the white piece of paper, with the settings adjusted correctly, you are ready to take calibration photos. Take a series of photos at different shutter speeds, varying by a factor of 2 each time.
    • Use 30, 15, 8, 4, 2, 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125 sec shutter speeds.
  • Repeat for a second set of calibration images, so that we can compare them later.
"Please also make two data tables in your notebook to keep track of the pixel value information for each calibration photo," she said, already fiddling with her own camera, just so that she was absolutely sure where all the settings were.


OOC: We won't actually be calculating anything with the tables, but your charries will be recording averages, medians and standard deviations according to the histograms on their cameras. That's too much work for us, though! So just have them enjoy fiddling with these antiques and we'll move along in about 48ish hours to the main activity!
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