-looks around, and keeps quiet. she writes this down eally quick-

Hermy looks around as she awaits further information, she has already written all this down.

Very good everyone!!

Swedishharrypotterfan – 1pt
Skelbs127-1pt
Fr2nc1z- 5pts
Hermione loves ron – 1pt
Genie – 1pt

Bethzc – 1pt

Thats right! The 3 main classifications of stars are white dwarfs, a main sequence star, adn red giants, but there are many sub-titles.

Stars are hot bodies of glowing gas that start their life in Nebulae. They vary in size, mass and temperature, diameters ranging from 450x smaller to over 1000x larger than that of the Sun. Masses range from a twentieth to over 50 solar masses and surface temperature can range from 3,000 degrees Celcius to over 50,000 degrees Celcius.

The colour of a star is determined by its temperature, the hottest stars are blue and the coolest stars are red. The Sun has a surface temperature of 5,500 degrees Celcius, its colour appears yellow.

The energy produced by the star is by nuclear fusion in the stars core. The brightness is measured in magnitude, the brighter the star the lower the magnitude goes down. There are two ways to measuring the brightness of a star, apparent magnitude is the brghtness seen from Earth, and absolute magnitude which is the brightness of a star seen from a standard distance of 10 parsecs (32.6 light years).

Ok then, 5 pts to anyone who can name me 5 stars...

*Raises Hand

"Sirius, Vega, Procyon, Castor, Arcturus and Polaris. Star names are either of ancient origin, of more recent historical origin, or are assigned by astronomical organizations under the umbrella of the International Astronomical Union (the organization of professional research astronomers). No private organizations have the rights to name stars."

Very good!

Did you know that you can actually purchase a star to name it?

Anyone else??

*OoC: Just wanted to let people know this about 'purchasing a star' just so no one wastes their money on it. "Unfortunately it's not really possible to officially "purchase" a star for someone, although many people think so and there are companies that advertise this service. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) http://www.iau.org/IAU/FAQ/starnames.html is the organization that is responsible for naming celestial objects, and they don't take requests from anyone (even astronomers) for star names. There are places where you can "buy a star", and you will get a certificate and star maps, but these names are not official and are not used in astronomy. In fact, the companies that do this don't even make an effort to communicate with real astronomers on the subject, they just keep a big book or speadsheet with everyone's name in it. Also, a lot of times the star you are given will be very dim, or even not visible to the unaided eye."

edited to add website.

*Angel raises her hand*

"Some other star names are Lyra, Capella, Regulus, Phoenix, Canopus, Rigel, Antares, and Draco. Stars could also be a map when sailing in the ocean at night."

The beta star from Adromeda is Mirach - the loins
The zeta star from Canis Major is Furud - solitary ones
The iota star from Carina is Scottulum or Aspidiske - little sheild
The alpha star from Centaurus is Rigel Kenaurus or Rigilkent - foot of the centaur
The beta star of Cetus is Diphda or Deneb Keito - frog or tail of Cetus

(-) what name means

"Altair ("flying one"), from the Aquila ("the eagle") constellation
Castor ("beaver") from the Gemini ("the twins") constellation
Mulu-lizi ("Man of fire") from the Libra ("the scales") constellation
Nihal ("camels quenching their thirst") from the Lepus ("the hare") constellation
Auva ("the barker") from the Virgo ("the virgin") constellation"

"Ain, Aldebaran, Primus Hyadum, Electra, and Pleione are all stars in the constellation Taurus," said Shannon.

*walks into the classroom and sits with the fellow hufflepuff and wait for the class to start

Pookah looked around shily and then looking determined she raised her hand:

"The names of some stars are:
Nashira (Capricorn), Regulus(Leo), Adhara(Unicorn), Altair(Eagle), Merak(Big Dipper), Dubhe(Big Dipper),Pollux (Gemini) Enif (Pegasus) Vega, (Lyra) Polaris (Little Dipper) Cochab (Little Dipper) Sheratan (Aries) Celenus (Taurus) Castor (Gemini) Alioth (Big Dipper), and Deneb (Cygnus) are some stars and the constellations they belong to.
Stars can also be classified by their colour and intensity."

Where on earth did that come from!?, she thought, while putting her hand down.

Francis raises her hand. "The names of the closest stars are: Sun, Proxima Centuari, Rigil Kentaurus, Barnard's Star, Wolf 359, Luyten 726-8A, Luyten 726-8B, Sirius A, Sirius B, Ross 154, Ross 248, Ross 128, Lyuten 789-6, Procyon A, and Procyon B." Then she adds, "The names of the brightest stars are: Sirius, Canopus, Rigil Kentaurus, Arcturus, Vega, Capella, Rigel, Procyon, Achernar, Betelgeuse, Hadar, Acrux, Altair, Aldebrain, Antares, Spica, Pollux, Formalhaut, Becrux, Deneb, Regulus, Adhara, Castor, Gacrux, and Shaula."

::raises hand::

polaris, regulus, castor, arcturus, procyon, vega, Deneb Kaitos, Denebola, Deneb, Adhara, mira, algol, andromeda, sirrah, mirach, adhil, al bali, ancha, situla, chara,

can you repeat the question?

Francis explains to Katiesmith she only needs to name 5 star names.

She also raises her hand and explains, "According to the Muggle Governmental Office: NASA, in their article How can I buy a Star, 'When you talk about "buying stars" or "naming stars" for yourself or a friend, you are most likely referring to the claims of one of the commercial companies who promise to do this for you for money (something of the order of $US 50). You can do this, but it is not official. Your name will not be listed in any file except the one the company who takes your money keeps. In fact, one of these companies was even issued a violation for deceptive advertising by the State of New York Department of Consumer Affairs. The International Astronomical Union is only OFFICIAL agency which names stars and other celestial objects. There are standardized rules for how objects get their names. None of these rules involve the exchange of cash! For more information, see: http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/StarNaming.html '.

Mmh, I think the question have been extra-answered, but I'll add ones myself:

Beetlejuice or BETELGEUSE (Alpha Orionis), which is the biggest Giant Red, and larger known star too. Then Sirius, Bellatrix, Cisne and the Sun.

Stephanie quietly writes all the information she has been giving eager for more.

Kali hears everybody answers all the stars she could think of. She then continues listening as she jots down some of the star names in her notes.

Oh my gosh! What intelligent students I have!! As promised, everyone that named 5 stars just recieved 5 house points.

And because you are all doing so well, each house gets 10 house points!! Well done!!

Next lesson we shall be looking at the life cycle of a star.

Now for homework. Send me a short message on why you wanted to do astronomy. No more than 5 lines. 2 House Points to EVERYONE that send one. Check the homework board to find out how to submit it.

In the meantime, any questions??

-copies homework down and waits.....to see if there is any questions-

Francis smiles proudly and writes down the homework, so she wouldnt forget to do it. "No Professor. Thank you!" she says happily.

::copies down the homework and looks around to see if anyone has questions::

*raise hand*

"I've a question, I, I mean, what use is renaming a star if it's not going to do anything to hte official list? Even if it's with romantical purpose it seems kind of illogical to go though so much trouble."

No point really... plus its not renaming.

I think the stars that you can "buy" actually arent important or well known stars (like theres noway you could buy the sun or sirius, orion etc), or possibly not even named yet. And it doesnt go on the official lists no.

I didnt expect anyone to make a big deal about it, it was just a fun fact! I wasn't suggesting anyone go out and buy one. Its like the whole sponsering a dolpin or a bear. You dont actually own it, but you share a piece of it. Its just more meaningful than buying someone a CD or something. You can say "I love you so much that I bought you a piece of the universe".

So yeah, just a fun fact!!