Astronomy Lesson 1
 

Neva walks in and takes in her surroundings. I wonder if they'll let me transfigue my room to look this new agey she thought. She walks over to a cat on the professors desk and tickles it under the chin. It purrs affectionately. Not eactly sure what she is meant to be doing, she finds a quiet corner and sits down observing the stars.

Jewil walks into the class room and finds a seat in the back. She pulled out her paper and got ready to start writing.

Serena entered the classroom with a smile. This class was such fun and she couldn’t help but think back to their end of the term surprise. Penguin racing was quite the experience.

Taking a seat right next to Tia, she placed her bag under her desk and removed her supplies. “Hello professor!” She said cheerfully, glancing admirably at the professor's cat, and then tossed a friendly smile at Tia.

Lizzie entered the room, groaning under the weight of her bookbag. She was awful at Astronomy. It wasn't that she didn't like the subject; moreover, it was that she plainly lacked talent in the interpretation and observation of constellations. Winding her way between the present students, she found a seat and set down her bag.

Jay was happy to go to class. She sat in the first row as her eyes glowed like crazy at the stars. She sighed at the beauty and thought how great this class was going to be.

Rachel walked into the classroom, she noticed a couple of students scattered around the classroom and professor belle at the front of the classroom. She walked over to a desk on the 3rd row and sat down.

Vivi walked in, she found a seat next to a girl, "Hi, a great few of the stars isn't it?" se saidd as she sat down taking a piece of parchement out and a quill.

Serena raised her hand. It almost seemed too easy. "The moon, professor?"

Neva places a reluctant hand in the air.

"The stars perhaps?" She guesses.

Jay raised her hand "somebody who accompanies or shares time with another
?" she answered as well.

"Yeah..." GG replied quietly, still astounded.

Quote:

"As the Earth moves around the sun, we have a constant companion. Who can tell me who that companion is?"

GG raised her hand. "The moon..." she answered

Rachel put her hand up. "the moon miss"

Jay thought for a minute "It is the moon!" she agreed.

Kat was pretty sure it was the moon, but did not bother to answer since it had already been said.

"Exactly right, one point."

"No, because the stars aren't all that constant. They change as the earth moves around the sun."

"The moon, like the sun, gradually moves eastward through the constellations of the zoidac, as veiwed from earth. However, there is a difference in time. How long does it take the moon to make a complete circuit?"

Tas raised her hand. "A month, or 28 days to be exact."

"Either 1 year or 1 day?" Jay answered.

"And thus everybody finds out why I'm so bad at Astronomy" Neva mutters. Could be worse. I could be stuck in divinationShe shudders involuntarily at this thought.

Kat raised her hand this time and said,"One Month, professor."

jewil raised her arm. "24 hours?" She asked not knowing for sure if it was right.

"Twenty-Four hours" She guesses, already knowing she's wrong.

Sean raised his hand and said, "29 days Professor."

GG raised her hand "twenty nine days, professor..." she answered.

Sean then raised his hand again and said, "Or perhaps it's 27 and a half days."

Becky raised her hand "umm approximately 27.3 days?"

Jay listened to all the other responces and shrugged her shoulders doubting her answer.

Running to class, trying to prevent her quills and parchment from spilling out of her bag as she booked it down the corridor and up the long tedious tower stairs, she reached the class. Stopping before she went in, she took a deep breath and quietly walked into class. Slipping in, unnoticed, it seemed, she choose a seat in the back and gave a small smile to one of the girls in the back, who was staring at her and sat down. Dropping her things to the ground, she took out a spare piece of parchment and her quill and ink bottle. Dipping the quill into the ink, she was ready for class finally.

Rachel sat and listened to the rest of the class. She thought it was month but didnt bother to put her hand up as most people had said about they number

"The exact time is 29 and a half days, so I'll give one point to each person who said a month."

She frowned at the Gryffindor girl who entered late, "Two points from Gryffindor. Be on time."



"That isn't the lesson for today, Vivi. Please stay on task."

"Be on time next time. Two points from Ravenclaw."

She continued with the lesson, "As the moon moves through the sky, both it's appearance and the time at which it rises and sets change with the cycle of lunar phases.

"The easiest way to understand the lunar phases is with a simple demonstration." Hazelle grabbed a box of same sized balls, "Take a ball and pass the box please." she said and handed the box off.

Once all the students had one, she continued, "Your head represents the earth, the ball is the moon." She waved her wand to simulate a sunny day, "Now, then, stand up, place the ball in front of your face and turn around, slowly. Watch what happens, you should all observe two basic facts. What are they?"

Becky raised her hand "the shadow changes both on the ball and our face"

that depending were the sun is depends on wether it is night or day on the earth.

Neva uses the distraction of the task to slip out of the room quietly. She knew she wouldn't be any good at Astronomy for the sixth year in a row and this proved it. She thought that she would visit the astronomy tower instead and practice trying to spot the constellations.

Serena grimaced as points were taken from Ravenclaw because of her. She had to get those points back, considering Slytherin were in the lead. Taking a ball from the box and passing the box containing them to the next person, she stood up and placed the ball in front of her, looking into the ball.

Vivi did what the teacher had told them. She stood up, "Does this show how night and day are presented?" she asked.

Jay wrote down most of everything. She got her ball and followed instructions. "hmm..." she thought. "It kinda gets...darker?" she answered knowing she was probably wrong. There was probably a much better way to explain things.

Lua stood up and started revolving and the moon kept revolving around her, shiftily glancing at it once and a while she raised her hand and answered "Ma'am is it that the moon always revolves around earth?"

Tas raised her hand again. "Well, I think one fact is that I can't see the ball anymore when I turn around."

GG took a ball and passed the box to the gril next to her. Then she followed instructions and stood up. she turned slowly. then GG realized something and her hand shot up "While I'm...well my head is the earth and I turn around, one side is faced to the ball, which is the moon and the other is to the sun...and as i turn, the moon looks differently...like half, then a quart..."

Raising her hand, she looked at the professor. "Would it stand for the different moons like the waxing and waning moons?" She asked curiously. Serena had always loved astronomy, but she never really understood it. The only things she really understood was the horoscopes that she got daily.

rachel took a ball and passed the box back. She stood up and started doing the task. After turning around a couple of times she tried to figure out the answer " erm while one side can see the ball one side cant?" figuring out that wasnt very good she went on to say " So when half of my face is shadowed if it represents the world they can see the moon and are in night?" she sat back down not knowing if her answer was correct

Sean took a ball out of the box and passed the box along. He stood up and did as instructed, "Well, the earth or my head is much bigger than the moon and that the moon casts a small shadow on only one spot at a time."

Hazelle sighed, she would have to remove 5 points from Slytherin for this.

"Day or night is only the perspective of the people on earth and has nothing to do with the moon's phases. The sun is always up in space."

Hazelle was struck silent....."...you're doing it wrong. Hold it in your hand and rotate it with you."




"Both of you have one of the points, two points for each of you. The other observation is that there is always half of the moon facing the sun, making it the only lighted patch.

"This is way we see the lunar phases, half the moon is always lightened by the sun, but which half depends on the moons position in orbit.

"Who can tell me when the New and Full moons happen?" (ooc: I am not looking for a date, I'm looking for imagery based on the activity we just did)

"New moons, are when the moon doesn't show, and full moons are moons that are fully shown" she said lowering her hand.

GG raised her hand "The new full moon will happen every twenty nine and a half days..."

Serena smiled when she recieved the two points back for Ravenclaw. There. Now Ravenclaw hadn't lost any points but Serena was definitely going to try and earn some more, to pull her house back into the lead.

The blonde stared into her orb again. Moving her head from side to side, she tried to figure out the right way to answer this question.

"Every 30 days?" Jay answered.

Amie raised her hand

"When a new moon rises you noticed that is it an orange color. Compared to a full moon. A full moon is just the orginial grayish color when it rises."

Amie hoping that is what she meant.

New moons and Full moons happen when the lunar cycle begins which is a new moon and when it is halfway through, which is the full moon." said Sean after raising his hand.

Tas's hand was up in the air again. "Now I can see that the Full Moon probably appears when the moon is fully opened to the light of the Sun and we can see it, when it is reflected from the surface. And the new moon can be seen on the opposite situation."

Lua blinked at the professor, normally more lunatics cause havoc during a full moon, it was one of its signs. SHe glanced around the room then raised her hand "Moon is illuminated based on its geometric appearance of the illuminated part and its rotations. So when the moon is facing earth there is no illumination and its called new moon, then as it angularly rotates until its side is facing the sun, its the full moon".

Jay wasn't getting this at all. I guess Astronomy just wasn't her thing. So she sat back and wrote down everything not raising her hand again.

Serena raised her hand. "The New Moon is when the illuminated half of the Moon faces directly toward the Sun, and the dark or unilluminated portion of the Moon faces directly toward Earth, so that the Moon is invisible as seen from Earth. Some also say that the New Moon may occur when the first visible crescent of the moon can be seen. In the Full Moon, the moon, as seen from the surface of Earth, is fully illuminated by the Sun at this time, presenting a "full" round disk to viewers on Earth."

"Exactly right! 3 points"

"Technically, the moon is always facing the earth, but I'll give you both 2 points (each) for that.

"Now, we see the many phases of the moon, but really only one face. Who can tell me what this means?"

Jay thought she actually knew this one "Well we can only see one side of the moon." she answered.

Becky raised her hand again "umm i think that means that we only see one side of the moon but it looks like different faces because of the shadow that is covering it"

Kemma raised her hand, "We only see one half of the moon - that's its face - but because of the shadows we see different amounts of the face as the moon moves around the earth."

Megan raises her hand and says "Professor, the moon has a dark side because we can only see one side at a time due to the position of it and us". She thought to herself, 'boy I hope I'm close'.

" we can only see one side of the moon as the sun is only reflecting light onto one face which means we see one part at the time eg when we see a fullmoon and halfmoon." Rachel said.

Serena nodded as the professor answered the question before. Processing the new information, she listened to the next question. Raising her hand, she spoke outloud yet again. "The Moon appears us that it doesn't rotate while we view it in the reference frame of the Earth-Moon line, but it does in fact rotate if we were seeing it in outer space and not on the earth or the moon."

Sean raised his hand and said, "Well, the face is the part we can see and it has light and dark patches."

Jay thought for a moment "Let me further explain my answer. We can only see one side of the moon, the face. And when different shadows are casted upon it, the moon looks differnt, the phases." she said.

Amie raised her hand

"What that means is that there are many different type of phases for the moon, but we could only see one side of the moon. There are phases but we don't take the time to notice it, because the moon looks almost the same every night" Amie answered

Rachel picked up her quill and jotted down a few notes just incase she needed them again for anything.

"Is it because while time changes on earth, and the sun rises and sets, it shows different faces?" Mayura asked raising her hand.

Josey raised her hand. She said, "Phases describe the light and dark, meaning the different amounts of light reflected off the moon that we see. Faces, on the other hand, is the actual moon. We only see one face of the moon because the moon rotates at the same rate as it revolves."

Hazelle smiled at the only student to not repeat what she had just said, "Very good, Serena. 3 points.

"Now, then, we've already discussed two phases of the moon. There are six more phases, who can tell me what they are?"

Serena's hand shot up. "That would be the First Quarter Moon, Waxing Crescent, Waxing Gibbous, Waning Gibbous, Last Quarter, and Waning Crescent."

Rachel thought to herself "quater-moon?" she said thinking of when she had heard it said before.

Megan sat quietly waiting for someone who knew the answer to speak up. She knew she was going to learn lots this term.

GG raised her hand "Waxing cresent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, wanning gibbous, last quarter and waning cresent..."

Amie raised her hand once again.

"The other different phases of the moons are Waxing Crescent, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Waning Gibbous, Last Quarter, and Waning Crescent" Amie said feeling quite proud of herself.

Rachel sat lower in her chair, her answer didnt seem that detailed compared to the other answers she really needed to learn some stuff.

"Very good, Serena! 3 points!"

"Nice try, Racheya, 1 point.

"Now, each of these 'rise' and 'set' at different times. Who can tell me when the first quarter moon.....rises?"

Sitting back down in her chair, she gently set the ball down on her desk, making sure it wouldn't roll off and break. Running through the phases of the moon in her head, she counted them off on her fingers. Listening to her other classmates, she smiled as she figured that she had gotten most of them. Writing the ones down that she missed, she redirected her attention to her teacher. Hearing the new question, she spoke up from the back of the room. "The first quarter moon rises when its 3/4 of the way around the sky from the New Moon." She said, trying to remember exactly what she had learned last year. It seemed to be something like this.

Rachel didnt put her hand up not knowing the answer but still thought about it thinking that it may have been around an early time in the morning

Serena beamed at the gain of points and raised her hand again. "I do believe it rises about noon."

GG raised her hand "First and Last Quarters occur when the Sun and Moon are about 90 degrees apart in the sky"

"Very good! One point to each of you!"

"Well, thank you for that tidbit, GG, but I'm afraid that wasn't my question." She winked at the girl and moved to the next question.

"Who can tell me when the waning Crescent sets?"

After considering the answer to the previous question, Megan raised her hand and said softly, "possibly around six or seven pm?"

yet again rachel didnt know the answer, she thought to herself that she needed to read up on these things. She thought about the answer but couldnt work out one.

in the evening, around 7-8pm, but earlier in the winter season around 4-5pmsaid mich raising her hand