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sweetpinkpixie · 09-09-2013, 10:33 PM

Warm rays of the September afternoon sun leak into the Astronomy classroom as you enter. The desks are arranged in their usual semi circle to help created a more personal environment. Professor Flamsteed's desk is positioned in the “front” of the classroom with a large red velvet bag resembling that of a certain North Pole dwelling fellow's on top of it. On the blackboard is a magically enlarged poster that surely you have seen by now. Professor Flamsteed is not standing anywhere near his desk, nor the bag, but by one of the large open windows looking out at the Black Lake. Try to take a peek into the bag if you want, but at your own risk

So come on in and find your seat. Oh, and don’t forget to use the lint roller on the small table outside of the classroom next to the sign that reads, "Not to be used as a brush for your hair."

⌦Lesson Progression
▸ See what happened when you look inside the bag? Just ask Miss Wheatborn
▸ question 1 :: what are the differences between a plant and a star?
▸ question 2 :: what star is closest to earth? Oh, and you can all have lime green beards if you want
▸ question 3 :: what iS thing thiiiiiiiiiiiiiing?
▸ mini activity :: label the parts of the sun
▸ question 4 :: what myths do you know that involve the sun?
▸ myth buster! :: the truth behind Icarus & activity instructions

OOC: Opening this thread up two hours early because something came up and I might not be here at the scheduled 9 am time

Please be sure you are familiar with Professor Flamsteed's rules BEFORE you post in this lesson. We will know if you haven't read them! All SnitchSeeker site rules apply.

This lesson has officially started! Please do not announce your character arriving late and just pretend like they have been in class all along. You are free to jump in any time and should use the lesson progression links to keep up.

lemon · 09-10-2013, 11:33 PM

"I'm Alice, but I'm also brilliant, and you can call me either one." Hand UP, standing, and fingers wiggling. "And I know one of the differences between stars and planets is how they're formed."

Elaboration? Yes?

"You know how stars have disks, professor? I think planets form when the materials in one of those condense around a rock core. Rock. Right? Rock. Or maybe ice. Or maybe both." HE was the expert, he knew. "But stars form when a gas cloud collapses in an interstellar region, like a nebula or something, 'cause of gravity."

Now questions. As usual, Alice had them. "Know how we made a star-in-a-jar, prof? Can we make a planet-in-a-jar? Also, I want a beard like Min, can I stick my head in the bag too?" Would she get house points? Hmm?

She'd give poor Aireyhead a couple seconds to answer before she started rapid firing again.

Cassirin · 09-10-2013, 11:33 PM

Alice just got amused looks. For one, because that was the nerdiest, most Ravenclaw answer ever. For the other, because she was wiggling around like a flobberworm. For another other, because of the questions. Who did she think she was? A Mo?

Speaking of... Mo raised his hand too, although he managed to avoid finger-wiggling. "Professor... I'm Marcus Branxton." And he sort of modeled his head a little to show there weren't any roller brushes stuck there. He and Flamsteed were acquainted. "I was thinking that a difference between stars and planets is that planets are really formed by stars, if you think about it. Like as a result of them. Whereas stars are not reliant on planets for their creation."

Ringo · 09-10-2013, 11:48 PM

Oh whoops.

Guess Dylan forgot to introduce himself, how silly of him... "Sorry, professor, I'm Dylan. Dylan Callaghan." he said, smiling at him before taking his seat.

Once more students arrived and found their seats, the lesson began and the Professor began speaking. As the first year listened, he played with his quill in his hands. Astronomy. Dylan had always found stars and such fascinating, so this class would probably be really interesting. He had no doubt he'd enjoy learning about it. And who was in this class, anyways? The Hufflepuff glanced up and looked around himself and saw a few familiar faces (including the mean boy from Scribbilus) and then many faces he didn't recognize.

He snapped back from his thoughts when he heard the professor ask a question. The difference between planets and stars? He knew this. The boy shot up his hand and then cleared his throat. "Dylan Callaghan," he quickly introduced himself. "And well....erm...stars emit light from nuclear reactions in their core, while planets shine only from reflections. So, in other words, stars create light on their own but planets don't." he gave a firm nod all smart-like. 'Cause he was quite smart on this subject, he had studied it a little bit about a year ago when he got curious about it.

emjay · 09-11-2013, 01:27 AM

Claudette was still in shock over the whole Minerva/green beard thing. Was this really protocol at this school? To humiliate someone simply for being curious? Because as far as she saw, there wasn't a note or sign saying not to peek.. not that the French girl had been paying all that much attention. And she felt horrible for Min not only because Claudette was sure she would have been mortified if it had been her sprouting the atrocious looking beard, but the girl looked justifiably upset especially with more than a few snickers directed at her.

But it seemed to be remedied soon enough, with a couple friends coming to her rescue and the professor giving points or something after he removed the punishment charms. Odd.. she rather save herself the humiliation than get any points at all.. and now she was rather worried that stepping out of line at all would give her a similar fate.

She vaguely heard something about hubris and a question about planets and stars, but her mind was still on humiliating punishments and she bit her lip.A little worried that something would happen if she failed to give an answer, the 16 year old raised her hand, then stood when she was called upon. "Claudette d'Avignon, sir.. I mean, Professor sir.. er.. Professor.." The earlier spectacle and her thoughts on it had gotten her so flustered, and her cheeks burned bright pink in her embarrassment. She did remember him saying something about not calling him sir.. oops. Hopefully there were no consequences. Taking a deep breath, she provided her answer. "Planets revolve around stars.. and not the other way around.. I think." Quickly she sat down and averted her eyes.. moving on, please?

Govoni · 09-11-2013, 02:09 AM

Energetic professor was energetic...

Right, though. Hubris. Ves wrote it down.

...and it was really sad that the professor's pet rock had went missing. Had someone stolen it? Was it a tale of deception and woe? Was there an evil masked villain behind the 'abduction', if she could call it that?

Ves read too many Batman comics...obviously...but she did want to help. So, after the lesson, maybe she'd hang back and talk to the man one on one...because it was embarrassing to do so during a lesson. Embarrassing for her, anyway. The blush was already there...if that was any indication.

Planets and stars, though. What was the difference between the two...? The Ravenclaw tried to think about anything her dad would've said...He knew a bunch about these two things...because he was brilliant and the best father. Why hadn't he asked about similarities? She knew a bunch of those.

"My name is Vesper Bayliss." BLUSH. "........Stars are classified by astronomers based on their surface temperature...and planets are classified by whether they orbit the sun or not, mass and self-gravity that makes it a...sphere?, and whether they can complete a full orbit..." Or....you know, she'd read that somewhere. She could have been wrong.

Vesper slowly shrunk down and hid behind her hair.

Luna_Midnight · 09-11-2013, 03:49 AM

Pebbles was still missing, she definitely would take a part in a search party if there was going to be one...It had to be around the school somewhere surely!! The difference between a planet and a star and easy question... Waiting until she could get her answer in she raised her hand and even though the Professor knew her name...Or should know her name stated it like he had asked for. "Im Nerida Eventide." Again purely only for everybody else's benefit because he knew her....And Sky the cat that gave him a fright!" "Stars' relative positions do not under go any noticeable change while planets' positions are noticeable because they are much closer to the Earth than the stars are, so we are able to notice their position moving around the sun."

DecemberMoon · 09-11-2013, 06:04 AM

Eliza smiled and nodded at Airey about the Gobstones matches and replied enthusiastically, "Oh definitely! I think it will be another fun year for the matches!" Though the last game she'd been rather under the weather, emotionally. But so had he. And everyone else, so it was sort of wash in the end.

Sympathetic eyes caught Minerva's blue ones as the fourth year watched in shock, and some tiny amusement, as the green beard grew on her friend's face. She felt badly that Min seemed to be so emotional about even silly things like that, but she hoped her friend could find the humor in it eventually. She could understand being embarrassed, make no mistake, but a green beard was just sort of funny no matter how you sliced it. Or combed it. She'd check on her after class to make sure she was okay, and to chat about the first lessons of the year and all that. And maybe about some other things too. Ahem.

After she'd heard far too many answers from the students around her, Eliza raised her hand and rambled out whatever she thought of first. "Professor, oh...well I'm Eliza Dawnsel, for starters, but you know that...Er, well, anyway. So, planets are different from stars because they have all of these interesting landforms and terrains - but that's not to a star's discredit really, because they just can't have those neat surfaces because well, they don't have surfaces." She knew someone had said something similar, but darn it all, that was what she'd wanted to say too.

Mell · 09-11-2013, 08:28 AM

This is what happens when you're a bit slow on the uptake, everyone else gets their answer in before you do. Was there any point in raising his hand and repeating what had aleady been said? Of course not but that wasn't about to stop him from contributing something.

"Michael Toussaint." he announced with his hand rased high in the air. "The only difference I can think of is when you hit your head on something you usually see stars and not planets." Because seeing planets would be just stupid.

Kitten · 09-11-2013, 09:02 AM

Well... at least that beard was gone now? And for once, Kahlan was awfully happy that curiosity didn't get the better of her... this time!

Otherwise she might've ended up being the one with the beard!

Quickly pulling out a quill and some paper she already started, taking a few notes on what people around her were saying about differences... and because she already felt that her answer would be stupid enough she figured she had to say hers now... or she never would!

"Well... stars have their own light and twinkle by themselves... planets don't" well that couldn't have been more obvious but she figured that she tried...

And that was all anyone could ask for!

PuppySara · 09-11-2013, 12:47 PM

Brodie looked at Minnie, actually feeling a little bad for her... then the professor asked about the differences... "Brodie Livingston Professor." He raised his hand. Brodie paused, it was Vince's favorite subject, he had to pick something up from his friend, "The basic difference between a star and a planet is that a star emits light produced by a nuclear reaction in its core, whereas a planet only shines by reflected light." Right? He was pretty sure it was true. He hoped it would be. Otherwise he'd probably be seen as a fool. So please be right...

pundantic · 09-11-2013, 12:47 PM

The bag made you have a beard. Blink, blink.

That was really...intriguing. Yeah, Glitter Trousers was a stupid buffoon who constantly made him regret his choice of sitting through his class ~~as if he had a choice~~, but he had most performed beard magic. For the first time ever in this class, Ascanius sat up straight and attentively. It was ugly and not the way he had envisioned a beard or proper stubble, but it was a start. This all meant that there WAS magic capable of growing a beard. And Ascanius wanted one.

He knew his face was attractive enough without one, however, beards were the pinochle of manliness and, smirk, look at him. The fifth year screamed manliness and charm. A beard would just add to his allure.

...he needed to know that spell.

Listening intently, to see if Glitter Trousers would divulge how he accomplished such a spell, Ascanius found himself growing irritated once more at the Professor. He spoke so often and so much it was nap inducing. Didn't he know? And he didn't really WANT to raise his hand and answer. 'Course he had an answer, yeah? Still didn't mean Glitter Trousers deserved to hear his voice.

Silently, Ascanius answered, Planets are one of two types: gaseous or rocky. While stars are only one type and every star makes up it's own system. Case and point? The SOL, our sun, is the centre of our system...the solar system.. But the only thing he said out loud was this, "Ascanius Stark."

sweetpinkpixie · 09-11-2013, 02:40 PM

With a quick flick of his wand Airey banished his Missing poster from the blackboard. With another quick flick of his wand he made the words ‘planets’ and ‘stars’ appear on the board written in white chalk with a vertical line dividing the two so that each suggestion students made could appear as a visual aid. He then turned his attention to the class and looked out at the sea of raised hands.

Stellar.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaetha

"Adrienne Colbert, with an ah not an ay," she recited almost mechanically. "Stars, as a general rule, are a lot hotter than planets," The most obvious answer in the world? Yeah, probably. Still correct? Yes, and that's what mattered.

“Very good, Miss Colbert. Stars do indeed have a very high temperature due to two things called nuclear fusion and nucleosynthesis.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

"Professor, I think I got one!" he said with a little bounce in his seat. "Uh... I'm Toby Tempus..." Ahem. Yeah. Hiiiiiiiiiiii. "And... you can see both stars AND planets in the night sky, right-" and the day time too... you know... the sun... "and they sort of look the same to us from this distance with just our eyes. BUT planets can't be included in constellations and asterisms, only stars can. I think." Maybe. And that still counted as only one point, right? Hopefully. Toby didn't want another reproachful look.

He was trying to think outside the box.

Was it working?

Thinking. Yes, Airey was a fan of this, especially when students were unsure but ventured a guess. While he was, of course pleased that students knew facts that showed they had read, he appreciated it more when students were able to put things into their own words or make new connections all on their own. Like Mr. Tempus was doing right now.

“Excellent thinking, Mr. Tempus,” Airey said while giving the boy two BIG thumbs up. “Planets are not included in constellations and asterism due to their orbits. Would be quite terrible for Draco to be missing part of its tail, yes?”

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Lex stuck her hand in the air. "Alexa Cambridge, Professor," He already knew this, why was she doing this? "and one difference is that one is just a bright ball of hot gas that has the potential to implode when it dies depending on the pressure and stuff at the time it dies while the other...well planets don't die...they don't do anything epic unless something crashes into them which could create a big bang." The idea of an explosion in space was quite exciting. Wouldn't anyone else agree?

Airey found himself chuckling quite a bit at Miss Cambridge’s answer. “While planets will not go supernova like a star can, planets too can in fact die, Miss Cambridge.” But this was not something that would be discussed this term. Next term however….heh. “Just as a star undergoes a series of temperature changes until it reaches an equilibrium and has the potential to go supernova, the a planet also exists in an excited state. There are temperature differences between its inner core and surface, weather, plate tectonics...and when these all slow down and eventually reach equilibrium themselves, then a planet with be, by geological standards, dead.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Princesspower

Sarah was relieved that the professor took that beard off the girl and she sat down at her desk and took her things out. Then the lesson began with reference to Pebbles. Sarah was not in the mood to actually think of an answer, she was just not in the thinking mood. She raised her hand and said what was on top of her head, "Aren't planets solid, and stars made out of gas? Perhaps if one steps on a planet they can walk normally but if they step on a star, besides burning themselves, they would fall through, just like one can walk through a ghost" Probably wrong, yet she was not in the mood for more. "umm, by the way, the example for planets would be mars, or something, as some planets are made up of liquids. It is pretty hard to walk on water. I don't think anyone has"
What was West's secret for growth? Sarah wanted to know, as she was so short.

“Ah, a common misconception, Miss Edwards. You are forgetting about the gas giants, such as Jupiter, that are planets without any solid metals or rock. You would not be able to walk normally on these either.” So no. Not a difference, but a good try.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixStar

"I'm Hannah Lockwood sir..." Cough. "I mean Professor Flamsteed. The main difference is that the planet is smaller even though you would think that a star would be smaller." Well, she couldn't speak for everybody else, but she sure thought that a star should be smaller than a planet.

Aha. Another common misconception. “Actually, Miss Lockwood, there is some overlap between the two. Astronomers will find planets that have a greater diameter than some stars on occasion - mostly giant gas giant planets. However, generally, a star is in fact larger than a planet due to the requirement of a large mass for nuclear fusion to start.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by PotterHeadforLife

So the difference between a star and a planet? That was easy. She needed these type of information just in case it came out in her NEWTs at the end of the term. Kat raised her hand. "My name's Katrina Hudson..." Just to let that sink in. People knew her already anyway. "Stars give off light and heat, while planets don't." That was her simple answer. Did she need to say more?

“Good, Miss Hudson, although we need to be careful with the generalization of heat. Planets can emit heat, just not in the same way that a star does. Essentially, planets give off light and heat reflected from the Sun. However if the planet has an internal heat source, such as our own, it can give off some heat. But yes, a star has its own light source.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by hermionesclone

And that's what the seventeen year old was doing. Thinking. Carefully. With an odd, furrowed browed expression etched on his usually jubilant face. As for the part about stating your name before you answer, Alec was really confused about that but... he... wasn't going to question it. So, he raised his hand in the air, his grey-blue eyes on the Professor. "Erm... the name's Alec Summers," He knew this, right? They talked about eagles and flying one time when the man was wearing a bright yellow suit. Alec remembered. "And... stars can change properties, yeah? They can become red giants and white dwarves over time but... planets don't really change properties over time." Unless, you know, global warming. But that's not really changing its property, yeah?

“Stellar reference to the life cycle of a star, Mr. Summers!” Airey said with a rather dramatic jump across the classroom towards the boy. Fantastic to know that students were remembering things and able to apply them in the classroom.

Quote:

Originally Posted by slytherus

Textbook, parchment, quill, ink... Everything was set on the table except for his wand, which was kept inside his robes. The corner of Angeal's mouth twitched at Flamsteed's mention of his pet rock, almost sneering. Yup. This teacher definitely lost a screw or two somewhere in there.

Glad he started the class quickly after that. Angeal lazily supported his cheek against his hand while the other hand was ready to jot down important notes. He had learned about stars and planets back in the muggle school. Stars can't support any life while some planets can. That's one difference he knew, but instead of answering the teacher, he wrote it down on his parchment.

Seeing no hand from the Slytherin, Airey simply passed by his desk. The boy was taking notes, which was perfectly acceptable to the astronomer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by the fastest seeker

Some mentioned something about light and that reminded her. She raised her hand, "Regarding temperature, a star is hotter than a planet." She simply answered.

“Very good, Miss Somerlad,” Airey grinned, giving her two thumbs up as well. “Stars are indeed much higher in temperature than a planet.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

.... what? Flammy was giving him odd looks. So was Sarah for that matter. She got a smile and the professor got a nod and then he stuck his hand up to answer.

"Its always daytime 'on' a star." He said, keeping it nice and simple, and surrounding the word on with air quotations. He didn't literally mean ON a star. Like... it wasn't as if people could live there. But hypothetically, if you were there it'd be day. Because of all the light and not being cast in shadow and all that.

Oh, another out of the box way of thinking. Airey grinned and nodded his head at Mr. Odessa. “A very unique answer, Mr. Odessa, but quite correct.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by bitsyandtank

Asher thought for a moment before raising his hand. "Professor, I think that stars are much hotter than planets. That is why they are bright and warm. Oh, and I'm Asher. Asher Stinson."

He believed his answer to be a good one. It did explain why they could see the sun during the day. At least he was fairly sure the sun was a star. It wasn't a planet, so that left stars.

See, Airey really should have provided them with nametags because he was feeling ridiculous having all these students he already knew say their name. Oh well. Too late now.

“Yes, very good Mr. Stinson,” he nodded.

Quote:

Originally Posted by feeheeheeny

Regardless, she felt that she needed to make some sort of effort. The Wandmaker guy had said she needed to be really good at Astronomy, so it was probably best to get on the professor's good side early on. She thought about all the times she had been stargazing. Well... she thought of something that might have made a little bit of sense, so she shoved her hand in the air. "Sophie Brown, si-... prrrrofessor," she corrected herself, her face contorting as she stopped herself. Why couldn't she call him 'sir'? She called EVERYONE sir. Even some girls, when the opportunity presented itself. "Don't the stars... always move in accordance to one another? I mean, the stars aren't moving - we are, right? - but, from our perspective, like, the stars might appear to shift in the sky, but they'll never be closer to one another 'cause they're... kind of in like fixed points, right? But planets... planets DO move, yeah? And... they can appear closer to each other. But stars can't."

Was she right? Or did she pull that one out of nowhere? She wasn't sure, but she plastered on a sweet smile, awaiting whatever feedback came to her.

Airey’s eyes widened and he clapped his hands together loudly before pointing BOTH index fingers on BOTH his hands at the Ravenclaw. “Excellent, Miss Brown, and an superb summary of last term!” And look at that. She hadn’t even been here! “Stars seem to move to us from our position on Earth because the Earth rotates. However, it should be noted that stars DO in fact move due to gravity. Every object in space moves because of this.What makes movements more noticeable and not is relative. Planets, to compare, are very much closer to the earth than the stars are and therefore their motion around the sun is noticeable as a daily shifting of their relative positions in the sky.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

WHOA.

Why did it suddenly seem like everybody in here knew really in-depth answers to the professor's first question except her? This was the first thought that went through Sophie's head. The second thought was that some girl now had a beard, and the third thought was that she'd earned ten points for it.

MERLIN.

Okay, back on track, Sophie... She hesitantly raised her hand. "Well, we can live on planets, but we don't live on stars," she said. That was as good as it got from a first year who was attending Astronomy for the first time. Was she even going to pass this class?

“Not all planets, but yes, very good. Stars are thousands of degrees hot and it would be virtually impossible to survive those conditions.” Not to mention the whole lack of ground to build a foundation on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonea

Still with a sad look she listened to what he was saying more and frowned when he asked them a question, and... she knew the answer! Yes, she had learned something during her previous year and now she felt proud about it! She raised her hand and spoke her name, "Sonea Duvessa," the third year old paused and thought about how she could explain what she wanted to say. "A planet has no light of its own, it shines by reflecting the light of the sun and that is the reason why you can see it with a telescope." So, she had given a answer, but if she could she had answered a LOT more questions because this was not the only answer she had for this question...

“Very well put,” Airey nodded to the trouble making Slytherin. Yes, he had heard rumors in the school, but she had yet to be an issue in his class - save for bringing her rat once.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JennMarie

Diffrences between Stars and Planets.. this was easy! she put her hand up and waited to me called on "I'm Ariana Logan." though he did know her name, but he asked to say names sooo.. And a difference between a star and a planet is that like stars are masses of hot gas that shine their own light cause nuclear something while a planet is a large earth-like body that does not have nuclear something....." so she forgot a few words that we;re key, oh well she was still spot on and she remembered that from her book cause she wantd a star of her own you see, so she was kind of fascinated by them.

“Ah, you too are forgetting about gas giants, Miss Logan,” he said with a quick tap of his own nose. “Those are hardly earth-like bodies.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charely Potter

The difference between a star and planet.. His brows furrowed. Since his OWLs, he only retained so much.. He knew the sun as their closest star and of course the planets.. Not too much though, but enough to raise his hand, "Wade...Potter, sir." Since he didn't mind at all whether people said his full last name or not, he still was a Potter, after all. The family tree in his pocket watch said so. Anyways, with his answer. "Well.. with a star like our sun. We can't stare at it as long as we can with planets." That was true.. right?

“A star IS just like our sun,” he said with a quick wink. He sort of knew what the boy was getting at, but wanted to make sure that there was no confusing. The sun IS a star, alright students? “Although I may have to disagree slightly. Just as Miss Brown mentioned relativity in terms of motion, brightness and one’s ability to stare at a star is the same. You could, for example, stare at Polaris all night and do no damage to your retina, unlike if you were to stare at the sun.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harron Peasley

"Charlotta Czesanka, but please call me Charlie, Professor," Charlie recited, flashing a smile at the Professor. And now, for his question. The difference between planets and stars. Charlie thought she could give a lot of answers to this, but she settled for one, as he asked. "Stars emit their own light, and that's how we see them. Planets, however, don't - we see them as they reflect light from the sun." Or, you know, other stars in different galaxies.

But they weren't studying other galaxies, right?

Airey grinned at the Ravenclaw. “Very good.” And something that several of her classmates had pointed out, but still a very good point.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustAlice

OH OH OH OH OH

Derry KNEW this. Cause her mam's friend was an astrophysicist and went on and on about stars and stuff... She bounced where she was sat and raised her hand. "Professor, planets orbit around stars, and stars... don't." Was that right? She had no idea now...

She put her hand down again and started scribbling notes in two columns on her paper titled "Stars" and "Planets."

“EXCELLENT!” Airey exclaimed, taking his first leap onto a student’s desk for the term. That had everyone’s attention yes? Oh, and he did make sure not to step on her parchment. The astronomer was considerate like that you see. “Miss Ferrier raises a very important point. By definition, a planet revolves around a star. Otherwise it can't be a planet in the first place.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by stormanator

Damon raised his hand and with a good amount of clarity attempted to give a reasonable answer "I'm Damon professor" He thought for a moment longer. "I suspect one aspect or difference of a planet vs a star is that a planet probably has a much longer lifespan then a star does. I've noticed stars in effect recycle themselves or totally go away and new ones join their place. So perhaps a lifespan difference." Damon finished giving his answer and listened to the other answers.

Airey gave the Ravenclaw a nod. “While some astronomers may argue the other way, and of course there are exceptions, planets do tend to ‘live’ longer than stars. Our sun, for example, is estimated to be 4.57 billions years old while the earth is younger at 4.54 billion years old, but the sun will perish before the earth does.” Cue a small sideways glance toward Miss Wisteria. Too morbid? He was working on his bedside manner this time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emzily

Hehe.

His pet rock was missing.

Anyway...

Astronomy was okay, apart from all the talking that came from Professor Flamsteed. Professor-talk-a-lot. Today was no different, but at least the first question was a simple one. Theo raised his hand, not bothering to say his name because PLEASE, this guy should know Theodore Kinsley by now. "You can live on a planet and not a star." Well... "Most planets, anyway..." He paused and tapped his chin, "I think."

“And you think correctly,” Airey replied while giving the prefect two thumbs up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazykitty

What?! Wheatborn was GETTING points?!!!? How did that even make sense?

Anyway, moving on. To the difference between planets and stars. Er. Everyone was already saying the stuff that Sky had thought of first. Because, of course. Time to think a little deeper into the subject, then. "Some planets can substain life, while stars are too hot to do so." Wouldn't that be cool, though? Living on a star.

“Right you are,” Airey nodded at the Slytherin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Team ronmione

The difference between a star and a planet. Hopefully this time Airey wasn't looking for a specific answer but just any general ideas that came into his students head's. An hopefully Tag would have a decent one. Slowly raising his hand Tag spoke "Aren't stars a bit more definite in knowing its a star while scientists have had controversy over deciding if a planet is truly a planet depending on its environment and the such?"

Airey had to pause here for a moment to go over Mr. Kildare’s answer in his head. It SEEMED as though the boy was implying that stars were self aware, but as the boy continued speaking it became clear what he meant. “You must be referring to the definition of what classifies as a star and what classifies as a planet yes? By extension the demotion of Pluto to a dwarf planet?” Airey paused for just a moment. “As human capabilities to explore space evolve, new discoveries will be made and what once was seen as fact may in fact need to be re-evaluated.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by fire_faerie

Blinking at the question and took a moment to think. Mummy really liked Astronomy, so he actually knew quite a lot about it. This fact pleased him, and he raised his hand. "Benzi," he stated, "they're made different. Iss'ike, there's space clouds and they make stars but planets are made up of the leftovers... Kinda like orange juice, when you squeeze it the juice stuff comes out and that's the good bit and then the bits from the orange come and those just sorta float around. But they float around INSIDE the juice and planets don't go around wonderin' inside the star. But yeah, they're made different."

Cue PROUD GRIN. This would be going in this week's letter home. He'd tell Mummy, and she's be really pleased and everything will be great.

While the orange juice comparison may not have made much sense to Mr. Benzi’s classmates, Airey caught the boy’s drift. “Excellently put,” he said, giving a quick nod towards Mr. Summers who had mentioned stellar evolution earlier.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

Minnie could totally rock a beard, just saying. Ella did feel bad, though. The older badger had been through things and was probably not up for being an example at the moment. Airey seemed to realize she was upset, though, and generously gave her points which was nice of him. Thumbs up, Airey-face.

As for the difference between planets and stars, Ella could think of a few. Surely their temperature and light and things like that. She also couldn't help but thing of the quantity difference. "There are way more stars up there than planets." Way, wayyyy more.

Simple, but very true. “A very good point, Miss Ella,” he nodded with a smile. Leave it to students to help him forget about his woes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syd

Anyway, though, for now the Prefect would be good and answer the question. He raised his hand, not bothering to announce his name because Flamsteed had just addressed him. "Planets have a revolution around a star, because a star's gravity is much higher than a planet's, which keeps the planet sort of... tied to its star in an elliptical orbit." Yeah?

Sorry to be Professor You-Know-What, Mr. Keller. But thank you for being a good sport and keeping your hands to yourself. Several dozen awesome points to you.

“Very good point, Mr. Keller,” Airey nodded. He would have also jumped on the prefect’s desk, but he had just done to earlier, so instead Airey threw both arms high up in the air as though he were on one of those muggle rolling coasters. “Elliptical orbits are key in defining a planet.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bubbles

Okay. Maybe he should pay better attention now. He heard what his new classmates had to say. Geez. They were all smarty pants. He preferred the short and quick answers though, so he scribbled those down. Something his dad told him about planets and stars popped into his head. He wasn't done writing, but he still raised his hand. Wait...wait...there. "Lucian Blackwell," he said, "Planets are big enough to have their own gravity whereas stars are held and given their shape by their own gravity." Lucian rubbed the back of his neck. That sounded a lot better in his head. Promise.

Hmmm, this one was on to something, but Airey felt the need to clarify a few things. “All of the planets, the stars and the moons of the universe have gravity. Even our own bodies have gravity. Everything is held together BY gravity. Gravity is simply a force of attraction between two objects.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarShine

"Forrest Charlton, Professor!" His hand was in the air. The man already knew his name, but he'd asked and Forrest wasn't going to deny his favourite professor. "Stars are always very hot, but planets' temperature depends on the distance to the closest star and their atmosphere."

“Very good, Mr. Charlton,” Airey said while giving the Hufflepuff an encouraging nod. Hopefully by now students had caught on that heat was an important differentiating factor between the two.

Quote:

Originally Posted by amadshade

Wait. Only one way? Tora could think of a million probably. Let's see. Which one would most other people not know? She had spent most of the summer reading up on Astronomy, her favorite subject, and was now even more glad that she had. She thought for a little bit, searching her memory for something fun to say when she had it! It was something that she was mostly sure was correct, not something she had actually read, but something she had deduced to be true. Here was the perfect place to test that deduction. She raised her hand and said, "A star gives off energy, but a planet does not. I guess this commonly comes in the form of light but it could also mean solar waves and stuff." she smiled a little. Ahh she loved space! It just put her in one the the best moods! Then she remembered the second part of Professor's question. "I'm Tora Gallaway, Second year, Ravenclaw." added on quickly.

“Excellent, Miss Gallaway!” he grinned at the second year. She was hinting at other factors that would not be covered today, but still valid points nonetheless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meizzner

"A Planet has an orbiting Moon"

Now the question was what has in that red bag. To cause Min to get the green beard.

“Ah, not entirely correct I’m afraid. Venus and Mercury are the only planets that do not have moons and there are, in fact, some asteroids that have moons,” he corrected.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talikins

"Hello Professor Airey!" BEAAAAAAAM. She was excited okay? "I'm Fairy Abbi Campi..And! And! Your question." She paused for a second with a head scratch. "Planets starts with the letter P! and Stars start with the letter S! Also Stars shine VERY brightly at night and Professor, I'm sorry about your pet. Had she spoken enough? Not really, no. Could she have answered better? Yes. But heeey these people knew what she did already. Like she totally knew there were more stars than planets. Psshht. Mind reading witches.

Fairy? That was certainly an interesting first name. Chuckling at her initial answer, Airey was listened as she listed some more differences. Er, he had just asked for one. “Actually, stars are shining bright ALL the time, Miss Campi. It is just that the sun’s light is so bright that it outshines the other stars during the day.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Planets and Stars! Awesome! Adi liked stars. So, erm one difference? Surrre. Adi raised his left hand. "Aditya Rehman,'' he said slowly and carefully to the Professor. It was certainly not Eddie Redmen, even though he found it quite funny. " Urrrn, stars twinkle. Planets don't do that, I think.''

“Very good, Mr. Rainman,” Airey applauded, once again mistaking the poor boy’s name for whatever reason.

Quote:

Originally Posted by noodles

Józsua sat and listened to the other kids and then raised his hand. “Józsua Istvan, Professor. A star has its own light; a planet doesn't have light of it's own. Shines by reflecting the light of the sun.”

“Two thumbs up for your answer, Mr. Istvan,” Airey said, doing just that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForeverYours

SPEAKING OF .. it was learning time and answering question time. First, though, she needed to think of an answer to said question. The difference between a star and a planet? Well, she was living on one and not on the other, but she didn't think that was what he meant. UMMM. She quickly snuck a look in her massive textbook ~~which she hadn't properly read yet.~~ "Bristol Haigh, Sir." That was her name done, hehe. "Plaaaaanets have low temperatures, in comparison to staaaaaars."

Correct? If not - blame the textbook.

Or her reading skills.

“More thumbs up for you, Miss Haigh!”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unalii

Taylor raised her hand, "Taylor McIntyre, Professor." She smiled then tilted her head, looking at him. "Stars generate light but planets don't, right?" Tay was pretty sure that she was right but she wasn't sure. Taylor fiddled with the quill that was in her hands, waiting to see what the professor would say as well as waiting to hear what everyone else says about planets and stars. She thought the professor made the class fun so she didn't mind paying attention... though being in Ravenclaw, you kind of are expected to pay attention 100% of the time.

“Right you are! Planets can reflect light, but cannot create it themselves,” he nodded.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bazinga

Listen to Professor Flamsteed start class she couldn't help but still feel mortified, but tried to push past it and raised her hand. With a shaky and quiet voice she answered. "Minerva Wheatborn" which he knew of course, "Stars undergo nuclear reactions that burn hydrogen in their cores, where plants do not do this." She had been reading a little bit this summer to hopefully continue doing better in the class.

Well, if she was against the idea he could always take them back, but it was time to put green beards aside for now. Airey tried not to make eye contact with the prefect because he was terrified of tears, but he still heard her answer loud and clear. “Yes, very good and a good reminder to the class about what happened during the main sequence stage of stellar evolution.” That was a little reminder to those of you in OWL and NEWT years. Review was the ticket!

Quote:

Originally Posted by hpfan18

When he finally got an answer ready, he raised his hand. "Kace Lecium." he stated his name. He hoped he remembered him. "Professor the difference between the stars and planets are their size. I mean when you look into the sky they seem SOO tiny. But when you see planets they seem huge!" he nodded. He gave the answer his best shot.

Airey nodded, but ceased nodding as the boy went on. “As a general rule of thumb, stars are much larger than planets. Some stars might be just a bit smaller than the largest gas giants, such as brown dwarfs, but as an example...if it were possible to do you could fit 1.3 million earth's inside the sun.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by itsgisselx3

Now that class had started, Christopher was surprised, yet again, to find that he actually knew the answer the professor's question. Or at least, he thought he did? Raising his hand, he answered a little nervously, "Well the sun is a star...and it's on fire and Earth is a planet...and it's not so...stars are on fire and planets aren't?" He didn't know much about stars that weren't the sun but he felt his answer made perfect sense anyhow.

Doubt thou the stars are fire? Why, yes he did doubt that, very much so. Airey resisted the urge to pinch his nose. “Stars are not on fire, Mr.Stylinson. Not in the sense like when you take a ball of paper and lite it with a match. Stars may seem like they are to the average person because of the thermonuclear reaction occurring at their core.” Besides, wasn’t the roof supposed to be on fire?

The roof. The roof. The roof is on FIRE!

Airey actually sang this little bit in his head and did a little dance while doing so. Shame the music was entirely in his head, however.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

Laura looked at the Professor and smiled. "A planet can have someone living on it, where as I don't think anyone could live on a star." Laura hadn't heard of there being life on a star.

Airey was still raising the roof when Miss Hyde answered. He gave her a reassuring nod and a salute

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lockhartian

"When considering stargazing...," yes, this was necessary to point out, "...given the reactions happening within its core, the stars appear to twinkle...," APPEAR, OKAY? APPEAR, BUT THEY DO NOT TWINKLE, "...whereas planet do NOT," since they don't emit their own light and only reflect others'.

So, fixed lights equals planets, twinkle lights equals stars. Also, was the sun being on fire a metaphor for high temperature? If so, then awesome!

Airey gave Miss Wisteria an extra wide grin. “Excellent, Miss Wisteria. Planets do not twinkle in the night sky mostly because their location in proximity to the earth is much closer than the stars.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

"Well, first off, I'm Caleb Newell, Professor," he said. Yeah, memorize that name Professor. Newell will be a name of GREAT IMPORTANCE once again! "And one difference between a planet and a star is that stars can actually die. Like one day they're just burning out there, chillin in the solar system and living their star life, and then they just explode. Sometimes the explosion is so crazy, it makes a BLACK HOLE," he said, emphasizing his voice to show just how AWESOME that was.

And he was pretty positive planets didn't do that. If they did, it was news to him.

Wait. Newell? He had heard that name before…. His eyes darted around the room briefly until they fell on the other Slytherin first year. Coincidence? He thought not, but would not say anything about this. He knew how much one of his classmates in school hated being referred to as “the brother” when he was his own person.

ANYWAY! Back to the boy’s answer.. Ah yes, the dying bit again. “As I said earlier, a planet CAN be described as dead, but in the terms that we are discussing you are correct. Certainly no planet will be exploding or turning into a black hole like some stars do.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by HOPEendures

She listened intently and then gave the question some small thought. Small because before she could think upon it anymore her hand shot up in the air and she said, "Stars eventually fade, or die." It was a simple answer and she felt silly for giving it. Wasn't it an accurate answer to begin with. Stars did eventually flare out but did planets die some how?

And this Gryffindor was along the same line of thought, so he gave her a smile and a nod. “There is a bit more too it than that, but simply review the chapter in your textbook on stellar evolution.” Seeing as he did not want to go into the entire lifecycle of a star right now. Not enough time to cover all that again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlwaysSnapesGirl

Oh hey, she'd thought of something. Maybe. Sorta. So her hand was raised. "You already know my name, professor." Or he SHOULD by now, at least. He usually cheered for her at Quidditch games, and he surely hadn't forgotten it over the summer. So she didn't need to repeat it for him, did she? "But anyway, I guess another difference between planets and stars is that we can use stars to tell directions and stuff, but we don't really use planets for that. Like with Polaris, it's three stars and we can use it to find which way is north, and constellations kinda help find it too, but we don't really have a constellation of planets or a planet Polaris to do that with." If that made sense.

Oh, another out of the box way of thinking. “Very good, Miss Greenwell,” Airey applauded. He really appreciated these out of the box and in reference to other terms’ lessons ways of thinking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LilFox06

She raised her hand. "When you look at a planet with a telescope, you get more detail." Of course, that didn't just apply to planets, since the same thing happened when you looked at the moon. "When you look at stars, you can see like... fuzzy rings. They're called... Airy...s? I think. Airy disks." That sounded right.

Heh. One of his personal favorite little astronomy vocabulary words right there. “Excellent, Miss Phillips,” he nodded while making a mental note about something to himself. They would not be discussing Airy disks today, however, but it was a good term for students to know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemon

"I'm Alice, but I'm also brilliant, and you can call me either one." Hand UP, standing, and fingers wiggling. "And I know one of the differences between stars and planets is how they're formed."

Elaboration? Yes?

"You know how stars have disks, professor? I think planets form when the materials in one of those condense around a rock core. Rock. Right? Rock. Or maybe ice. Or maybe both." HE was the expert, he knew. "But stars form when a gas cloud collapses in an interstellar region, like a nebula or something, 'cause of gravity."

Now questions. As usual, Alice had them. "Know how we made a star-in-a-jar, prof? Can we make a planet-in-a-jar? Also, I want a beard like Min, can I stick my head in the bag too?" Would she get house points? Hmm?

She'd give poor Aireyhead a couple seconds to answer before she started rapid firing again.

Er….right, Miss Fischer. He was not going to be calling her brilliant, but perhaps he could call her answer as such one of these days. “Both, Miss Fischer. Terrestrial planets form gases condensing into rocky particles while Jovian planets form from gases condensing into icy particles.” Although it was not his intention to talk about planet formations today. Another day another lesson for all that.

Before he could elaborate further, she was, in true Miss Fischer fashion, rattling off questions left and right. “Not today, no,” he said shaking his head. And...wait...she wanted to stick her head in the bag and get a beard. “Um...well...if you really want one I suppose you can…” Was he going to have an entire class filled with green bearded students? Sweet solstice whatever would the Headmistress think of him then?

Eh, probably the same. That he was loonier than a Seer who had heard a fwooper’s song.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Speaking of... Mo raised his hand too, although he managed to avoid finger-wiggling. "Professor... I'm Marcus Branxton." And he sort of modeled his head a little to show there weren't any roller brushes stuck there. He and Flamsteed were acquainted. "I was thinking that a difference between stars and planets is that planets are really formed by stars, if you think about it. Like as a result of them. Whereas stars are not reliant on planets for their creation."

“That is very interesting, Mr. Branxton,” Airey nodded with great interest. “Would you care to elaborate a bit further on this?”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rupert-Grint-Fan

He snapped back from his thoughts when he heard the professor ask a question. The difference between planets and stars? He knew this. The boy shot up his hand and then cleared his throat. "Dylan Callaghan," he quickly introduced himself. "And well....erm...stars emit light from nuclear reactions in their core, while planets shine only from reflections. So, in other words, stars create light on their own but planets don't." he gave a firm nod all smart-like. 'Cause he was quite smart on this subject, he had studied it a little bit about a year ago when he got curious about it.

Nod nod. Yes. Correct. Excellent. “Very good,” he said, giving the Hufflepuff a quick thumbs up before moving on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by emjay

She vaguely heard something about hubris and a question about planets and stars, but her mind was still on humiliating punishments and she bit her lip.A little worried that something would happen if she failed to give an answer, the 16 year old raised her hand, then stood when she was called upon. "Claudette d'Avignon, sir.. I mean, Professor sir.. er.. Professor.." The earlier spectacle and her thoughts on it had gotten her so flustered, and her cheeks burned bright pink in her embarrassment. She did remember him saying something about not calling him sir.. oops. Hopefully there were no consequences. Taking a deep breath, she provided her answer. "Planets revolve around stars.. and not the other way around.. I think." Quickly she sat down and averted her eyes.. moving on, please?

“YES!” Airey exclaimed. “This is a very key thing.” Were you listening, Mr. Kildare? It had been said several times now. Planets revolve AROUND stars. Arouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuund.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Govoni

"My name is Vesper Bayliss." BLUSH. "........Stars are classified by astronomers based on their surface temperature...and planets are classified by whether they orbit the sun or not, mass and self-gravity that makes it a...sphere?, and whether they can complete a full orbit..." Or....you know, she'd read that somewhere. She could have been wrong.

Vesper slowly shrunk down and hid behind her hair.

She was blushing. Why was she blushing? If there was something that made him nearly as awkward as tears it was blushing. Just going to wiggle our way over this a way while we listen to you speak, Miss Bayliss.

He nodded his head after she answered. What she said was true, but the differences in classification had not been the direction he had intended thinking to go. “Very good, Miss Bayliss,” he nodded with a smile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luna_Midnight

"Im Nerida Eventide." Again purely only for everybody else's benefit because he knew her....And Sky the cat that gave him a fright!" "Stars' relative positions do not under go any noticeable change while planets' positions are noticeable because they are much closer to the Earth than the stars are, so we are able to notice their position moving around the sun."

Airey nodded at the Ravenclaw slowly. “Yes, very good Miss Eventide.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by DecemberMoon

After she'd heard far too many answers from the students around her, Eliza raised her hand and rambled out whatever she thought of first. "Professor, oh...well I'm Eliza Dawnsel, for starters, but you know that...Er, well, anyway. So, planets are different from stars because they have all of these interesting landforms and terrains - but that's not to a star's discredit really, because they just can't have those neat surfaces because well, they don't have surfaces." She knew someone had said something similar, but darn it all, that was what she'd wanted to say too.

“Ah, but can you say that planets like Jupiter also have landforms and terrains?” he asked with a quick wink.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mell

"Michael Toussaint." he announced with his hand rased high in the air. "The only difference I can think of is when you hit your head on something you usually see stars and not planets." Because seeing planets would be just stupid.

Pause. Laugh obnoxiously loudly. “Yes, yes, very good Mr. Toussaint. Very true as well. Although I sometimes see orbiting planets when I am whacked over the head.” Stars tended to be the norm, though. Occasionally spaceships too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kitten

"Well... stars have their own light and twinkle by themselves... planets don't" well that couldn't have been more obvious but she figured that she tried...

And that was all anyone could ask for!

“Ah, but a star cannot twinkle without the assistance of the earth’s layers of turbulent air,” he said with a smile. “You are right though. Planets do not twinkle.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by PuppySara

Brodie looked at Minnie, actually feeling a little bad for her... then the professor asked about the differences... "Brodie Livingston Professor." He raised his hand. Brodie paused, it was Vince's favorite subject, he had to pick something up from his friend, "The basic difference between a star and a planet is that a star emits light produced by a nuclear reaction in its core, whereas a planet only shines by reflected light." Right? He was pretty sure it was true. He hoped it would be. Otherwise he'd probably be seen as a fool. So please be right...

“Yes yes, very good, Mr. Livingston.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by fanficfanatict

Silently, Ascanius answered, Planets are one of two types: gaseous or rocky. While stars are only one type and every star makes up it's own system. Case and point? The SOL, our sun, is the centre of our system...the solar system.. But the only thing he said out loud was this, "Ascanius Stark."

……………….yes. Hello to you too, Mr. Stark.

Stepping to the left side of the board, Airey nodding his head approvingly of the list they had composed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by the board (let's pretend this is in two columns, okay? &lt

STARS

A star emits its own light
Stars twinkle
The relative positions of the stars do not undergo any noticeable change
Since the stars are very far away, the telescope can only make them look brighter but not larger
A star has very high temperature
There are billions of stars in the celestial sphere
Stars can go supernova *BOOM*
Always day on the "surface" of a star.
Stars do not orbit planets.
Life is not possible on stars.
When you get hit over the head you see stars

PLANETS

A planet has no light of its own. It shines by reflecting the light of a star.
Planets do not twinkle.
Since planets are very much closer to the earth than the stars are, their motion around the sun is noticeable as a daily shifting of their relative positions in the sky.
Planets have low temperatures.
Planets do not go [b]BOOM[/s] supernova
Planets have day & night
Planets orbit stars.
Life is possible on planets.
There are only eight planets in the solar system.
Planets are not included in constellations.

OOC: I'm sorry that this is not everyone's answers, but you all are awesome and gave great responses <33

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

OOC: this took me a lot longer to type up than I thought

SO SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY! Class will resume as soon as I wake up ... hopefully, so in about 8 - 9 hours.

TakemetotheBurrow · 09-11-2013, 02:46 PM

Ella gave Professor Airey a beamy-beam because reasons and continued taking down the other things that her classmates were suggesting. Or well, most of the things. ~~That was probably mean, right?~~

Then it was time for more questions and the blonde sat up a little straighter, listening intently. She liked stars lots and stargazing even more. No worries, though. She knew the rule about the Astronomy Tower, professor. She always kept that in mind. Heh.

As for the big dramatic 'WHAT,' the blonde smiled and called out, "The sun, Professor?"

And nope, no beard for Ella. She would totally doodle her classmates with beards, though. That could be fun.

feeheeheeny · 09-11-2013, 02:52 PM

Text Cut: Airey

Oh. So she was... partially correct? Sophie scribbled down everything Airey was saying and murmured a gentle, slightly heartbroken "oh" after Airey corrected her details. Well. That was cool, then. "Cool. Good to know. Thanks." At least her answer hadn't been completely out there. The professor seemed mildly pleased with her. That was encouraging.

At the professor's following ramblings, Sophie continued to make quick notes on her parchment, noting how passionate and... positively enthusiastic this guy was about his planets and stars. Funny guy. When he built suspense with a questioning of what, Sophie halfway raised a lazy hand and assumed, "The sun?" That made sense, yeah? It was the biggest thing in the sky compared to the other stars that were just specks.

She wanted a beard, too. She did. She thought about it for a second, envisioning herself going up there and donning a cool beard, then... decided maybe she'd ask if she could get one after class. That'd be more fun and then she wouldn't have to deal with the distraction of stroking the beard while she was supposed to be learning.

slytherus · 09-11-2013, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

Now twirling the quill between his index and middle fingers, Angeal's eyes simply followed the teacher as he walked around the classroom, with a few brief moments to look at the blackboard to write down his notes. And when Flamsteed raised his voice, the boy startled and dropped his quill. Good thing it was just a quill. Too light to make a noise that will attract unwanted attentions...

"The sun," muttered the Slytherin under his breath, playfully stroking the feather of his quill. His fidgeting didn't stop even when the teacher somehow suggested(?) them to take a peek into the bag which gave a girl a green beard earlier. Curious as he was, he wouldn't dare to do it. His Slytherin pride would be hurt too much.

Kimothy · 09-11-2013, 02:58 PM

Text Cut: Flammy!

Yes, Kat knew that the planets also give off heat. Cause they say the core is just really really hot and found in the middle of the Earth. They have the crust, the mantle, and the core. But that wasn't exactly what they were going to learn today. It was more on stars and planets, but what Professor Flamsteed said has been duly noted. Kat nodded a few times and then scribbled it down on her parchment.

What made Kat look up from her parchment and writing was when she heard that loud 'WHAT?' from her Astronomy professor. Merlin, Flammy, did it have to be that loud? But she knew the answer obviously. Kat raised her hand to answer the question. "It's the sun, Professor." Simple as that.

... Although Kat wanted to know what was inside the bag. Yep. But curiosity got the best of Minerva Wheatborn so, no, she wasn't going to risk even if the charms and spells have been lifted. Safety precautions and stuff. Kat wouldn't look good with a green beard anyway. It was hairy... and just gross. So no, thanks.

bitsyandtank · 09-11-2013, 03:00 PM

He was thrilled that his answer was correct. He puffed his chest out a bit and sat straight up in his chair to take the notes on the board.

He looked up when Professor Airey asked the next question. "I believe it's the sun." Yes, the sun. It had to be. It was bright, hot, and very easy to see. None other was bigger in the sky.

MudInMyBlood · 09-11-2013, 03:17 PM

Ok so sometimes planets could be bigger than stars. Fine! She was still almost completely right and that definitely counted for something, in her head anyways. She jotted down notes as the professor went about and explained stars and planets and blah, blah, blah. She knew that she would have to rely on them later because there was no way she would remember all of this later. Sigh.

The closest star. Oh, she knew this one, but apparently so did everybody else. She raised her hand anyways. "Like everybody else has already said... the closest star is the sun." So bright and shiny-ish.

If anybody else wanted a beard? Who would possibly want that? No thanks, she didn't really care what was in his stupid bag anyways. It was most likely lame anyways so PFFFFT!

natekka · 09-11-2013, 03:22 PM

SPOILER!!: AIREY <3

See that? SHE got a thumbs up for her answer. Thank you very much textbook. It wasn't all down to the next book, though, obviously. She'd been the one to decide to use it, so therefore it was all on her. The textbook was just a mere tool. Professor Flamsteed clearly noticed her awesome and she grinned back in response. And no, Sir, she would NOT having a beard, thank you. Though she'd totes look snazzy in one.

The closest star to the Earth?

SHE KNEW THAT.

Her hand went straight up, but she was beaten to it by others. That didn't put her off and she kept her hand firmly in the air until it was her turn to speak. "The SUN." Peek in textbook. "It's about 8 light minutes away, Sir," she told him, grinning, nodding and just trying to look like she knew what she was saying. How did peoples cram all of this stuff in their brains without exploding, was what she wanted to know. Especially useless information like this.

Expecto-Penguin · 09-11-2013, 03:33 PM

SPOILER!!: Le Prof Airey :3

As Professor Airey was explaining to him the answer he gave, he copied it down into his notes. It was good information to know. Then he asked a question that he could not answer but it was good to think about. He didn't have an answer but thankfully he moved on.

Then he returned to the class and asked another question. Kace thought of i, what is one star that is close to the earth? Kace thought about it and then it came. DING! He raised his hand, "Professor i know that the Sun is close to earth but i never knew it was a star." he told him earnestly.

Harron Peasley · 09-11-2013, 03:39 PM

Smiling in relief as the Professor spoke and reassured her that her point was valid, Charlie began to copy down the answers that other students were shouting out. Which were MANY. She stifled a giggle as he jumped onto a students desk, deciding that maybe she'd actually LIKE Astronomy this year.

AND next question.

Charlies hand rose into the air hesitantly before she spoke. "The Sun is the closest star to us - about 150,000,000 kilometres away." And she was so annoyed that she could only remember an approxiation of an approximation. Hadn't her father drilled her on this last year?

JustAlice · 09-11-2013, 03:40 PM

Derry almost jumped out of her skin...

ALERT
ALERT
ALERT

HE WAS ON HER DESK

THE TEACHER WAS ON HER DESK

FINGERS MAY BE TRAPPED.

She grabbed her quill and flailed a little bit, falling backwards out of her chair and squeaking. "Professooooor!!!"

People shouldn't DO that.

She was a jumpy enough person as it was.

And she was half stuck in her chair. Jeeeeeez. Clumsy Derry.

Team ronmione · 09-11-2013, 03:44 PM

Sigh. Tag looked at all his classmates and the other students who seemed to be answering with The Sun being the closest star to earth. But he wasn't going to answer, everyone else seemed to be handling that part.

But they were talking about the sun so that made Tag crack a small smile.

Still though...

Sorry Professor Airey, Tag felt like he wasn't smart enough to be answering these questions just so he could be embarrassing himself, like last time. Oh well. Tag simply nodded at all the answers.

Talikins · 09-11-2013, 04:02 PM

Ohhhhh. That was interesting. The stars always shined. Something new she had learned already. See her brain could absorb things very quickly! Clever fairies were clever! Yep! Yep!

BLINK.

Would you look at that list on the board? So full. With her small eyes, the eleven year old just looked. But was she expected to write it down? Cause she would if she were given the instruction to do so, but considering she was not given the instruction she just read over it and focused back on the Star of the show!

SHE KNEW THIS ONE! SHE....Awww man! Someone had answered before her. She could still feel clever though, or wanted to therefore she put her hand up anyways. "THE SUN!" Beam. She had learned that at her previous school.

As the name Miss Fischer was mentioned, the strawberry blonde's hair swerved to look at the biter. Giggle. Sort. Why would she want a beard? Santa wore beards NOT girls. Pshhhht. Silleh.

aaetha · 09-11-2013, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"The Sun," Adrienne droned, not even bothering to raise her hand since everyone was saying the exact same thing at almost the same time. It was incredibly obvious, and she didn't know why professor Flamsteed was so excited. It was just the sun, not much of a big deal, no? She knew the basics: it was a star, a yellow dwarf to be precise, the Earth orbited around it, et cetera. There had to be more to Astronomy than stars, which was pretty much all they'd studied last year, too...

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

On the one hand, Adrienne really wanted a beard. On the other, she had exactly zero desire to stand up right now, so she debated it furiously in her head for a moment before deciding it wasn't worth it and she may as well just stay slumped in her chair lazily. She would watch other people get beards and, through them, feel the satisfaction of beardiness.

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