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-   Term 34: May - August 2013 (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-34-may-august-2013/)
-   -   Astronomy Lesson 2 :: Polaris (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-34-may-august-2013/astronomy-lesson-2-polaris-93671/)

Expecto-Penguin 06-10-2013 05:22 PM

Activity 2 Post 5
 
Alright so they had 20 more minutes to go? Hmm he better find other constellations then. Kace was hearing loud voices and it was hard to concentrate and find the stars he needed. He just needed to tune them out. He heard Minnie saying Happy Birthday to someone, was it the professor? He had no idea because then he was happy for finding Cassiopeia. He admired the beauty and was happy he found it after looking for it for a while. He check it off his list.

SPOILER!!: Notebook


Astronomy stargazing scavenger hunt

constellations
Ursa Major
Ursa Minor
Draco
Cassiopeia
Cepheus

Andromeda
Aries
Auriga
Camelopardalis
Capricorn
Cetus
Cepheus
Corona Borealis
Cygnus
Equuleus
Eridanus
Fornax
Hercules
Lyra
Pegasus
Perseus
Pisces
Taurus

Planets
Pluto
Neptune
Saturn
Jupiter
Mars

Stars
Polaris
Vega
Deneb
Altair
Pollux


Since he was finding constellations, he wanted to look for stars. He was keen on looking for Vega. He was scanning it and wondered what it looked like. He checked the star chart the prof gave them. As he was searching for it, it was right under Hercules! So he found a star and a constellation. I guess hufflepuffs were good finders when they put their minds to it.

Sometimes if you didn't go in order of the list, it was easy to find everything. After he found Hercules and Vega, he found Corona Borealis. It was right above it. Man this spell really helped finding constellations in the sky. He wished he could use this when he went back home.

Weasley174 06-10-2013 05:36 PM

Post 1 finally
 
Laura looked at the rest of the class they had gotten ahead of her somehow and she had no idea "Ice-cream is great for you." Laura really wanted some ice-cream and Daichi had hers after she had promised him, he could have some, now though she had to try and get on with the activity. "Oculo Focalis!" Laura had no idea if this would work and it seems it hadn't, she had no idea what she had to do to get it to work, what was she doing wrong.

Hey Ju 06-10-2013 05:38 PM

Activity 1: #3
 
After a few moments of getting used to that whole craziness, Sophie blinked a few more times and held the sides of the desk in front of her. That was mental!! Whoa!

She closed her eyes tightly for a bit and then looked in the direction of the chart. Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh, neat!!!! A wide smile spread across her face and she read all of the tiny letter at the bottom, which were not tiny at all anymore.

"Brilliant...!" She whispered, still holding onto the desk. She was able to read alright, but for some reason she felt she'd be dizzy and fall over if she let go of the desk.

The Hufflepuff kept staring at the Muggle eye chart as she waited to get used to this whole new feeling. If that was possible...

emjay 06-10-2013 05:42 PM

activity 1, post 3
 
They were seriously still going on about the flipping ice cream? Ice cream constellations even.. WTH? Ethan tried to tune out the nonsense and focus on the eye chart once more.. and he'd probably be able to do that too, if it wasn't for the fact that it was his girlfriend who was acting like she had lost it.. not some other random student.. or even Professor Flamsteed, who Ethan had come to expect hyperness from. And that had him worried that there was something weird going on with her.. like a concussion or something.

The smaller lines of letters were increasingly harder to read, but he found he was able to focus his eyes on them due to the charm.. which meant it worked, right? Once he got through this, he could test them out on the constellations of stars. He finished reading the last line in his head and looked up to see Minerva approaching. And again with the ice cream.. He couldn't help but smile just a little with the cute comment, but he soon turned serious as he looked at her. "Min.. is everything alright? I mean, I've never seen you this excited in class," he said, keeping his voice low. And excited was an understatement.. he had never seen her carry on that way. Although.. flashbacks of when they were under the effects of the fwooper song came filtering through his mind. He watched her for a moment, concern in his eyes, as he tried to figure out what was going on with her.

DuckyLinJi 06-10-2013 05:46 PM

Yes , yes he was a sweet for letting Minerva have her name first in their new icecream constellation. Because he was sweet like that! He wasn't named Slytherin Sweetheart in the yearbook for nothing right?! GAAAAAAASP! Did that mean he was an icecream?! Because icecreams were sweet right?

...Okay and why did he think that? Daichi stared at the Professor when he began to shout out loud for them to stop the nonsense. Instead of feeling intimidated and shying away like he would normally do, he did the exact opposite. He LAUGHED loudly, his dolphin like high pitch voice ringing through the classroom.

Realizing what he was doing, he quickly held his hand in front of his mouth to silence his laugh and looked at both the Professor and Minnie. "I don't know what's happening to me!" he managed to say, he looked scared for a second but that look faded away instantly and he had his goofy grin back, his mind on the icecream they were getting after the lesson was over....

FAMOUS GRANDSON SAID WHAT?! No icecream?! Nuuuuh! "We'll be quiet~!" he promised LOUDLY and he began to bounce towards his seat since he had already found some of the stars and even an Asterism like Flamsteed pointed out.

Hey Ju 06-10-2013 05:55 PM

Activity 2: #1
 
So onto the real thing now. Sophie was suddenly reminded of her first year, where she stargazed with an older Gryffindor for a really long time up in the Astronomy tower. That had been such a lovely night!

And thanks to the girl, Sophie kind of knew how to spot the Ursa Major. Well, sort of. The fifth year quickly levitated the eye chart back to her desk before getting up and looking at the window. She stumbled a bit as she walked up to get closer to it and finally put her wand away.

Woooooooooooooooooow...... the sky sure was beautiful when you got to see it with that awesome Charm!

The Hufflepuff momentarily forgot about the activity and just stood there, looking at random stars with wide eyes. For some reason she was subconsciously convinced herself the spell would work better if she stared at the sky with wide eyes...

Wow..... just... wooooooooooow...

Oh, look at that pretty, extremely bright star right there! Sophie smiled at it and tried to figure out which one that was. She looked at other random stars and lost sight of that bright one. They all kind of looked the same to her now. Wut!

Weasley174 06-10-2013 06:12 PM

post 2
 
Laura looked at the sky, it was beautiful, she really couldn't believe how great it was looking now though she hoped that she could get things sorted and be able to do this task but she wasn't sure if she could because of the things that were going on.

Laura thought that this sky was great and she was looking forwards to spending time in the summer just staring at it, she wanted to go camping and she would ask her parents if she could go on her own or if they could go as a family but she didn't think her sister would want to go camping with her.

Govoni 06-10-2013 06:14 PM

Activity One: Post 1.
 
Right...So, Dylan had to practice the charm...

...and he'd known Professor Flamsteed would decline talking about that sort of thing in class...which was why he didn't elaborate. Smart Dylan was smart...Like, "Claw"-smart. That was scary to think about...but true, nonetheless.

Also...not that he didn't trust his own spellwork...but it made the Captain nervous to use any type of magic near his eyes. He was a Seeker...What if he accidentally blinded himself? The fear was irrational...The Professor had said so himself about it not causing any real damage...and Dylan believed him...but the reassurance didn't make him any less nervous...It couldn't be helped. The Slytherin was suspicious and paranoid of everything these days.

Practicing saying the spell first, he started by sounding it out...and getting his mouth used to actually forming the letter sounds. Oculo Focalis...Like O-cu-low foe-cal-is? Was that correct? Either way, it was six syllables.

Oculo focalis....Oculo focalis....Oculo focalis....Oculo focalis...

Casey O 06-11-2013 02:46 AM

Activity 2 post 2
 
Marigold continued looking up at the sky. Scanning, scanning, scanning. Oh! She found Polaris! She did a little happy dance, then tried looking for a constellation.

She was excited now, she found both Ursa Major and Ursa Minor! She now looked for Pegasus...

And there it was! Hmm... she could slightly make out the shape, but she would call it more of a hat than a pegasus...

TeafortheSoul 06-11-2013 02:55 AM

Activity 2 post 5
 
The eagle constellation. Zeus's eagle. West scanned the sky, and given he knew where Deneb and Vega were, he looked for and found the Summer Triangle asterism, which meant THAT there was Aquila, and there was Lyra and theree, that faint one, was Lacerta. The LIZARD.

And there was Sceptrum Brandenburgicum! West traced it gleefully one handed. Yes. Obscure. Not that it was a constellation anymore, but West had always liked the name.

And Andromeda there.... yesss.

Now to spot some planets because he was good with constellations now.

West looked toward the Southwest and let his eyes pick out the points of light up there. He knew WHERE they should be...... Hey was that Jupiter? West perked up.

lemon 06-11-2013 02:55 AM

Activity 1, Post 2
 
"Oculo Focalis. Oculo Focalis. Oculo Focalis. O-cu-lo Fo-ca-lis. Oculo Focalis." Alice started practicing the incantation first, just to make sure the words felt right on her tongue. Even though the spell wouldn't ess up her eyes, she was being wary, okay? Eyes were precious things. Wands weren't just going to be poked into her sockets without careful preparation first, thanks.

A slight swish and a tap on closed eyelids. Swish and tap. She tried that with her wand and no spell first, and Alice figured she had it down soon enough. Swish and tap. Swish and tap. Swish and tap. Was this supposed to be difficult? Didn't seem like it. After practicing the incantation a couple more times and going through the movement again, she deemed herself READY to cast the spell. This was going to work, right? Eyesight was vital. For reasons.

Pause. "O-cu-lo Fo-ca-lis." Wand movement and incantation together now? Swish and tap?

"Oculo Focalis!"

lazykitty 06-11-2013 02:59 AM

Activity 2 Post 5
 
Sky had surprisingly managed to block out the sudden hyperness of one Duck Boy and has gal pal. But she couldn't anymore when Professor Airey started to yell at them to cool it. "Sparkling Unicorns!" And that was complete with a rather high jump. What had gotten into them, anyway?? Just because another professor had come in with a present and greeting didn't mean they had to loose it! Anyway, back in her little world, the stinging in her eyes was getting worse. "Finite." she cast on her eyes. There, that was better. Though, they were still watery and felt a little puffy. But her eyesight was back to normal and the major part of the stinging was over.

Govoni 06-11-2013 03:02 AM

Activity One: Post 2.
 
Feeling like he had a good grasp on the incantation, Dylan pulled his wand and started practicing the motion. It was rather simple in design...but he wanted to make absolutely sure that he was doing everything correctly.

A light swish and tap to the eyelid.

The delicacy of the movement probably had something to do with it being near the eyes...or at least he was going to tell himself that. Moving the wand around, he swished a few times. Lightly, though...Not full-out swishing like the Slytherin usually did with other spells. More like an afterthought-swish.

...and then he practiced getting used to his wand tip tapping against his eyelid. Gah...Thing was, Dylan was most shaky about this part. He was probably going to fail and poke his eye out. That would be just his luck.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Everytime he tapped, his eyes spazzed, too. Merlin, this was awkward.

lemon 06-11-2013 03:03 AM

Activity 1, Post 3
 
Did that work? Her eyes felt slightly different, but.. just to be sure..

Alice backed up far enough until she shouldn't have been able to see ANYTHING, not even row one, but she could. Blinking a couple of times and widening her eyes slightly, she peered closely at it, noting how clear it was (and the top rows were probably clearer than before, too, even if she wouldn't admit it, because her vision was perfect, see?) But this was brilliant. Could she do this on Gramps when she got home? Did he know this spell? Merlin knew he needed vision help, that was for sure.

But extended use warnings and all.

Eh, whatever. He could deal with bags and redness. She'd try it later maybe.

oh its Erik ok 06-11-2013 03:04 AM

Activity 2 Post 4
 
Now maybe it was time just to state at the stars and hope that he spotted a constellation. He was found two that were pretty random. But they were awesome to say the least. Though he still could not get suits of his mind.

What if wearing suits increases your awesomeness level. They were really fancy and classy. Plus it gave a unique air about you. It just keeps nagging him. Well he had to find some constellations.

But he was getting distracted really easy this lesson.Like my Elwood came in and said it was Flamsteed's birthday. Wonder if he had a special suit for the occasion. Knowing him. He probably did. Just not wanting to show the class.

Nigel looked up bored and wanting to find a constellation badly. Well that star looked really bright and was not polaris. Maybe it was another bright star. Polaris was not the brightest after all.

Watson 06-11-2013 03:12 AM

Activity 2-Post 5
 
Jo had a sudden urge to blink. Must not blink. Must not blink! If she blinked then she could lose her place that she was gazing at in the sky. Biting her lip, she continued looking in the western direction for any familiar constellation shapes when she couldn't hold it in.

Blink. Blink.

She pouted. Jo had lost her place. She rubbed her eyes, sighed, and decided to head back to where Polaris was. She wasn't going to leave this class without finding the remaining two constellations: Cassiopeia and Cepheus! She would find them. Oh yes, she would.

After making her way back to Polaris, Jo decided to look in the opposite direction that she had been gazing in. She'd go South. As her brown eyes grew wearier and wearier by the minute, Jo focused more and more. She was going to find them. She had to. The Slytherin wouldn't accept defeat.

Eventually she came to a trapezoid shaped cluster of stars. It looked very familiar but she knew that this wasn't the one she was originally looking for. This wasn't Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia was a "W"-shaped constellation. Jo began to move away from the cluster of stars when she realized something. Her eyes widened. WAIT. That was Cepheus! She had found Cepheus.

Since Cepheus was there that meant that Cassiopeia was sort of south from it. Her eyes moved in a southern direction and she had another urge to blink. She couldn't blink. Not yet. She was so close to finding the last constellation. Jo bit her lip in order to stop herself from blinking. Just as Jo was about to blink, she found a "W"-shaped constellation. It was Cassiopeia! Hooray! She had done it. She could blink! Her eyes were stinging really badly now.

After blinking several times, Jo grinned and cast, "Finite!" Her eyes adjusted back to her normal vision and the stinging finally stopped. Her eyes felt less puffy. Wonderful, she grinned. The spell was over and she had completed the activity. The Slytherin headed back to her table to make some final notes about the activity.

lemon 06-11-2013 03:27 AM

Activity 2, Post 1
 
Stargazing? That was easy, Alice approved. After mentally noting all of the stuff they were supposed to be finding in the sky (because she could do this verbatim, remember?), she glanced up, just to make sure the spell hadn't worn off yet. It was like she was wearing a telescope. How cool was that? But, anyway, she was supposed to be focusing less on the spell now and more on the star finding. Polaris was first on her list, yeah?

Which meant.. what was she looking for? Big Dipper asterism? Even though it wasn't a constellation, it'd help, right? And there were pointer stars on the edge, so she could use those to find the North Star. Simple enough. So Ursa Major first.

She tilted her head upppp and began searching the sky.

Govoni 06-11-2013 03:36 AM

Activity One: Post 3.
 
Okay, okay.

Dylan was ready to actually try the spell...on his eyes....Yes.

Clearing his mind and all that, the Slytherin thought about his eyes changing and sharpening their focus...Seeing things closer and in a higher definition...Hardcore stuff going on here. He needed to SEE like he'd never SEEN before...

He took a moment to smirk before clearing his throat and readying his wand. Breath.............breath..................breath..................

"Oculo Focalis!" Light!swish! EYELID!TAP!

Blinking a few times, Dylan didn't immediately notice a difference...but then there was a difference. A big difference. As Professor Flamsteed had mentioned, there was some dryness...but apart from that, no other negative side effects...

Merlin, everything seemed right up in his face...Dylan couldn't look at his immediate surroundings...because everything seemed too close. Too much in his personal space for the Slytherin's liking...So, he directed his magnified eyes upward. The stars were beautiful like this...He could already make out Aries, the ram...

oh its Erik ok 06-11-2013 03:41 AM

Activity 2 Post 5
 
Nigel was not really wanting to find anymore constellations. He was growing bored looking at the stars. This was not worth more than the time he already put into the activity.

He just stared into the stars looking for things that were weird and should not be there. Like a plane and or a shooting star. That would be awesome to see. Though Flamsteed would probably go into a lecture on them.

Nigel continued looking into the stars not really searching for constellations. But he was finding them easier than he was at the start of this class. He was just really keeping track of which ones. Unless he could find Virgo. Then all the others did not really matter. Nigel was not even sure if he was a virgo. But liked it the best anyway.

"Well would you look at that". Nigel said pointing in the sky. He had found it after all. He was please with his awesome self.

emjay 06-11-2013 03:50 AM

activity 2, post 1
 
At this point, Ethan wasn't even sure he was going to finish the activity before class was scheduled to end. His focus was anywhere but on the stars and he needed to turn that around.. at least until class was over. Hopefully he would get a little bit done, then he could worry about making sure Min was okay.

So the first thing he was supposed to find was Polaris and he turned his eyes upwards after taking hold of his textbook. His eyes snapped to Daichi, hearing his words.. yeah, he didn't know what was happening to him either. Daichi or Minerva.. both were acting super strange and it left him with an unsettling feeling. But back to class..

That bright one up there was Polaris, yeah? Ethan turned his eyes from the night sky to the textbook to make sure it was in the correct location. Yes, that was it.. What could he find next? Well, Ursa Minor was easy.. it contained Polaris and he easily identified it next. Then he moved on to Ursa Major. So similar to the minor one sharing its name and in close proximity as well. Ethan checked his book just to make sure of his accuracy before moving on.

lemon 06-11-2013 03:51 AM

Activity 2, Post 2
 
This was hard. Really hard. Why were there so many stars? No one even cared about those other ones anyway, they were unimportant and pointless and just cluttered up stuff. Only for show. And they were making finding so much harder. Alice, making faces and preparing to stick her tongue out at the sky like a three year old, was getting impatient. Where was the Big Dipper? Asterisms weren't supposed to be this difficult to find, yeah?

There! In a huge cluster of stars, she spotted Ursa Major. That looked like a bear, she decided. Was that it? That was it. If it wasn't, she was going with it 'cause she wasn't bothering to look anymore. And she didn't need to consult a textbook, clearly. Hmph.

So she had found Ursa Major. .. cool.

Govoni 06-11-2013 03:59 AM

Activity Two: Post 1.
 
Oh, scavenger hunt, Astronomy style. This was very innovative, Dylan had to admit. There were so many stars up there. So many that it was almost impossible to distinguish one from the next. They were clusters in comparison to constellations...

GEMINI.

Yes...Dylan noticed that one almost immediately...being a Gemini himself. Castor and Pullox were right there, helping to form the twin!sign...and right below that was Orion. The Captain liked that name...So, that was probably why he knew about that set of stars. Orion's belt. That always came to mind whenever he thought about that name...

He had to blink several times...because his eyes were beginning to itch...

What else did he recognize....

Lockhartian 06-11-2013 04:10 AM

Activity 2 - Post 3!
 
Her target had been Polaris, right? And she'd only found Draco so far. She might have wasted a bit of time by admiring the constellation, but it was just so pretty.

You know, she actually likes the stars. And she'd rather be an astronomer than an astronaut. She'll probably mention that to Airey someday.

RIGHT NOW, she had more pressing matters. Except those pressing matters were easy ones, given what she'd found. And, if that one was Draco, then the little connecting-dots beneath it were Ursa Minor. Little Dipper.She felt like wanting ice cream for some reason.

She was oh-so-busy connecting stars dots, that she failed to notice something of great importance.

There was a star she'd been looking for, and it resides there, in Ursa Minor. Remember Lottie?

lemon 06-11-2013 04:20 AM

Activity 2, Post 3
 
Definitely Ursa Major. Alice beamed up at the suddenly less irritating sky and proceeded to attempts to locate the Big Dipper. That asterism was somewhere in this constellation, yeah? A cup shape was what she was looking for, and then a kind-of-line that was the handle. After a couple more minutes of careful scrutinization of the constellation, her enhanced eyes finally landed on a shape that looked sort of similar to a cup, and she followed it to the supposed handle of the dipper.

Asterism found. Now she just needed to find the Little Dipper, because Polaris was on the handle of that. By using the pointer stars on the edge of the Big Dipper's cup, right? Alice bit her lip thoughtfully and stared at the bear for a couple more seconds before doing just that.

And there was Polaris! What next?

Lockhartian 06-11-2013 04:38 AM

Activity 2 - Post 4!
 
OMG!

Polaris! That was the star she was supposed to be looking for, and the one who resided in Little Dipper. Because a star is a person now. N'awww, this was brilliant! Literally.

But she needed a break from the star, because her eyes were itching again. So, 'finite' served her well. She people-watched for a moment, before turning her eyes to the sky, without the spell. Lottie was capable of telling the general location of the star and constellations she's found. Well, not exactly, she could see them, but they seemed less bright, and farther away.

Back to stargazing for real! "Oculo Focalis!" Swish, tap, whatever.

Now, it was easier to try and find other stuff, and she went on a hunt for Ursa Major. She had the main location for it, but she needed to connect the stars and form the constellation in her mind. So, one by one she started connecting them.


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