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Class starts at 11:30 PM. Today's Class Schedule: a. Review & Discussion. b. Universal Basics. Next Week: Review(Section 1) Telescopes will not be nessisary for class unless otherwise noted. Remember to bring note taking materials with you to class (you will be excused from this for the Jan 10th session) Should you have any questions, feel free to visit my office between your daytime classes. For tutoring, please make an appointment with me prior. Feel free to ask questions! The astronomy classroom has now been remodelled to be 'indoors' (see post for details) and have windows that look outwards into an animated  image of space, similar to the Great Hall's ceiling enchantment. At the center of the room is a large sphere that is being used as a projector; underneith is the old armillary sphere. Desks are arranged in a circle around this globe and two alcoves (southwest and northwest) have small fireplaces to heat the room, which are raised slighly above the floor with steps leading to them. The original Astronomy classroom looked like this.

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Students entering the classroom tonight found the Astronomy classroom somewhat changed - yet again. Tapendra had finished moving his things into the upper room; the rest was now stored down stairs in the office itself. The classroom, still surrounded with windows, was now full of books in the alcoves, and small devices lined the walls, neatly organised. A small armillary sphere sat near his desk in the northern alcove, spinning quietly on its own; but it was the sound that filled the chamber that would have been the most unusual.

The typewriter had been a wonderful find, and he owed Ryan quite a bit for buying it for him. It even had mathematical keys - he didn't want to know how much his friend had spent to find one of these, with how rare they where. Sometimes he wondered why Ryan did these things for him without question or complaint.

Tapendra typed away, the loud clack-clack-clack-briiiing-clack sound of the machine echoing rythmically in the chamber. He was typing much slower than he normally would have - it wasn't like typos would be all that easily erasable, he'd have to use magic for it - and the long keys where odd-feeling under his fingers.

Still, he could actually write at a decent speed now.

As students began to appear, he nodded mutely to their seats and typed faster, hoping to wrap up this page before they all arrived. "Take your seats, please. Class will begin shortly."

He finished and packed the typewriter away carefully, putting it in its leather case. The windows showed the dramatic eye-shape of the Helix Nebula; on reflection perhaps a rater distracting image. But he'd leave it unless it was an issue.

He left the alcove, leaving the globe be for now.

"We're going to be doing some review today," he explained once most of the students were seated. "You, as a class, did well on the small test last week," he added with a beaming smile. This was true - it was better than he had been fearing after the first years. "However, I have to get you all up to speed for your upcoming OWLs. So we'll go over what you should know today, and do a short lecture.

Feel free to ask questions or stop me at anytime; discussion is also somehing I feel is very educational." That Knight boy didn't seem to have shown up. Good. "Now, let's start at the basic level. If you wanted to create a love potion, what would be the best time of the month and day or night to do so?"

Naomi waltzed into the astronomy room on time, and grudgingly slid into her desk as Tapendra Trishna nodded to her while typing away at some ancient typewriter clicking incessantly and clanging at the end of each line. It was kind of amusing to watch, but she kept a rather bored and lazy expression on her face as he just kept going at it. She’d seen them in use when she visited Jamaica, but they were mostly toys. Pre-printed letters slapping away at a paper was no substitute to the fine and elegant and noble patterns of calligraphy and penmanship.

It was also quieter.

At least she wasn’t ever cold whenever she visited the astronomy room anymore, that was one smart thing Trishna managed to do when he took over the job, she didn’t have much faith in anything else.

 Naomi cradled her head in her hand as she leaned her elbow on her desk, eyeing the books that lined the walls of the classroom and hoping, at least one of them, had something about magic in them, but she found that hard to believe. Muggle math formulas and long boorish proofs had been running through her head since last class, and while she was sure she could answer the questions aptly, she knew she wasn’t going to like it.

But when Tapendra put force such a simplistic question Naomi pursed her lips disbelievingly for a minute, unsure if he was really asking this, or that this was the same teacher going in such a different direction from the previous week. The Slytherin slid her up off hand off her cheek in a raise and answered the question, “You mix ‘dem up undur the t’ird quarter moon. Waning phases.” she answered leerily. “Moon’s shining the odder side of ‘di planet during the day—eet’s not much use over ‘der.”

Was that right? Or was he going to throw something about muggles and their bottles of pills and factories at her? She was still in a bit of a shock he said the word 'potion.'

"Correct, Miss Foley," he said. He tapped the globe; an image of the Moon orbiting the Earth - in chart form - appeared. "Correct indeed, but there's a bit more to it than just the phase." He smiled slightly; that was an understatement, certainly.

"It comes down to the time of night - or day," he continued. "The unseen Moon does still have an effect on magic, if used correctly - its light is not the only way the moon's power effects the Earth, after all. During the day the Moon's tidal force is its dominant power - it effects spells pertaining to the sea and water, mostly. Largely unused in this area of the world, I'm given to understand. Now, then - as you should have been taught, time and exact positioning also have a massive effect on the heaven's power over your magic," he continued. "You should have been taught how to calculate this when doing charts for individual spells. Can one of you tell me what the formula for determining the Moon's maximum power, down to the minute, is?"

He sighed when he saw the looks he was getting. "And as for the seeming shocking swerve in...focus...it has come to my attention that your previous professor's teaching style may mean he didn't cover things you need to know for the O.W.L," he explained. "Depending on how much he left out, we may have only 5 months to get you up to speed on things you should have been studying the whole year." He smiled ruefully, tapping his palm with his wand. "And despite what some of you may privately feel about my focus, I have, and never had, any intention of keeping such information from you."

Sophie had heard through the grapevine that the new professor had received howlers about his intended course of study. She didn’t think that was actually fair - but then people don’t like change. Things that are new or different were scary, people would be resistant. At the same time she’d been very worried herself, in the sense that the three classes she did very best in had a lot to do with Astronomy. She relied on the stars and moon to make sure everything flowed properly. Her mother certainly hadn’t sent a howler though. It’d be a bit hypocritical since she was a muggleborn herself. It was just one more fight poisoning the air of Hogwarts. Sophie couldn’t let herself think too much on it. Professor Grimlish was owling her to continue to mentor her gift and Nan always asked questions Sophie had.

She had figured she could learn what she needed to on her own. Yes, Sophie had progressed to survival of fittest when it came to her education.  Thumbing through her star charts she had tucked in her notes the night before she glanced up at his next question, she raised her hand, suddenly hopeful she wouldn‘t fail miserably and get a Troll on her OWLS “You start with the sunrise and sunset of a given day where you‘re located, lets say June 28th in Glasgow.” she paused to be sure that Tappy would allow her to continue, “And lets say that Sunrise was 4:37 and sunset was 10:01, that makes the length of day time 17 hours and 24 minutes - or a much easier number to calculate - 1044 minutes. You divide that by 12 and it gives you the length of a day hour - in this case 87 minutes”.

Sophie felt like she was in her element now, if you gave her math problems that just involved numbers and symbols she would freak out and be sure she couldn’t solve it - but if you let her give you a practical example [especially when she had notes!] she could be almost as geeky as Sasha, “You could calculate the night hour by repeating this process but as a general rule you can just assume that a day and night hour combined should equal 120 minutes. So in this case the night hour equals 33 minutes,” she paused flipping through her notes to double check her calculations, her forehead furrowed as she continued, “Once you know that it’s easy to calculate which planet rules over each hour - the first is always the planetary day, then you file the cycle of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, and back to Saturn”.

Sophie wasn’t even aware if anyone listening at this point - but she felt like she couldn’t just stop explaining, “So, in my example the moon’s most powerful pull would be between 6:04 and 7:31, and at it absolute strongest at the exact middle point between that hour - 6:47. Leading up to that the moon is gaining strength and after that point it is losing it. You’d wash rinse repeat for finding the night hour,” when she finished her thought she looked up from her papers - feeling a little dazed. Sometimes Sophie was almost a savant. She could clue into ideas and explain them in great detail but not remember how much she had actually said when she was done. Clearing her throat she gave Professor Trishna a sheepish look, her voice coming out a croak, “Right?”

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All of Sophie’s information came from my interpretation of this site.
Feel free to rebut any or all of it. 

The new Astronomy professor seemed to have sense, and he was really excited about learning more than astrology for once. He liked science- he always had. When he had gone to muggle school, the Ravenclaw had excelled greatly in maths and sciences, and the fact he would get to utilize that skill again was a very exciting prospect! He arrived to class early in his anticipation, taking a seat near the professor to peer curiously at the thing making the clackity-clack sound. Baxter had only seen a typewriter once or twice in his life, but he loved the sound. He had wanted one at some point in time to write with, but his mother had refused. Instead she bestowed upon him a nice journal set and some expensive pens, which he loved just as much.

The question that he posed was one that Baxter was not familiar with. Though it did not surprise him that a girl knew the answer to the question. What boy knew how to make love potions anyway? He certainly had no interest in romance yet, so he assumed that those who did were just...weird.

When the professor proclaimed her answer to be correct, Baxter carefully noted it, making sure to underline the main point. The formula he asked for was another thing Baxter was not aware of. He didn't recall learning anything of the sort yet. Did that mean he was behind, or was it just somethign the fifth years needed to know and he was lucky enough to sit in on it and learn a little more?

Baxter turned his attention to a Gryffindor girl who explained the formula. He got lots half way through, and raised his hand in the air. "I didn't quite understand that," he announced. "Could you do an example so I can copy it into my notes for later? That way I'll have the formula and can just plug the information into it as needed. Practice makes perfect, after all."

Since coming back to school Ayla had changed, it was slow and subtle at first but by now it was definitely noticeable. It had started simply enough - one day she had just not put on any makeup, another her hair was unattended kept back by a simple hair band, next came the heels, putting the petite girl back to her natural height of five feet then the clothes, she was now seen wearing a proper regulation uniform at all times. If one had asked she simply said that she was too focused on her studies to worry about her looks anymore. The truth being that her run in with Arielle and Kit in the girls bathroom had severely damaged her self image, not to mention the fight she had gotten into with professor O Morain, letting her emotions get the best of her.

Ayla sat at her desk quill in hand parchment in the middle scribbling away notes for the class. She wasn't surprised to see that once again the third years were being lumped in with the fifths. She just hoped that with all this talk about OWLs, Trishna didn't expect her to actually know everything the fifth years did. That would just be unfair. Surely none of the other third years knew as much, they were two whole years behind the older students. The only person that likely knew OWL material was Baxter but then she had always viewed the Ravenclaw as being a male version of Dahlia.

Her green gold eyes focused in on Sophie and widened as the girl continued on. She had no idea her friend was that smart nor did she understand a single thing she had said. Ayla wasn't horrible at math, throw a bunch of numbers at her and she was pretty good at figuring it out but she had to see it to understand it. Trying to follow along with what the older Gryffindor was saying just wasn't working and she soon lost interest. Her eyes wandered as she took in the other students present. Although she didn't want to admit she was still a little worried about the empty desk where Xavier was supposed to be falling asleep.

Peyton stifled a yawn as Sophie gave her explanation. It wasn't that it was boring or long winded or anything of the sorts. Peyton was simply over tired. Between pushing himself harder than ever to get his marks back up, practicing what felt like non stop for Quidditch and all of the family drama that was happening he barely had any time to himself, not to mention that the stress of it all was affecting his sleep.

He had gotten a letter that morning that had deeply disturbed him. The regal looking owl that had delivered it was one he had never seen before but the envelope had been sealed with the official Wentworth crest. He didn't recognize the script inside and a few words in explained why. The mysterious letter had come from Arathorn Wentworth, Peyton's grandfather, a man he had never met. He had met some of his father's sisters and a few of his cousins but most of the family disagreed with Henry's choice to be with a muggle. It wasn't until this past Christmas that Peyton understood that why they disapproved so much. It wasn't entirely that he had chosen a muggle wife, it was that he had left his pureblooded wife behind to do it. The letter itself had mainly been about the disappearance of his brother and whether Peyton had any idea about where Xavier might be.

Pushing all his drama aside he focused back on the class. His cool grey blue eyes focused on the younger Ravenclaw and he couldn't help but smirk. Damn that kid was smart, there was no question whether he had ended up in the right house or not (although it was often speculated as to why Peyton was ever made a Ravenclaw) Peyton turned to the Professor raising his own hand as well, "I'm with Fox on this one, think we could get the full equation up on the board. Just to have something to write down?"

Peyton turned to Sophie with a smile trying to let her know without words that he wasn't trying to say anything bad about her explanation he just simply hadn't been able to follow it. Although he wasn't all that great at keeping notes in class he did better when he had something to look off of later when he was trying to work out of Quidditch mode and into study mode.

Erin was bored out of her mind.  Not that would surprise anybody.  Though the photographs in telescopes were always fun to look, but Erin's mind quickly lost focus.  Her subconscious picked up what Collins and her housemate had said, but she wasn't really paying attention.  She had to find something to do before she would go insane.  Fidgeting her chair almost as though she were possessed, Erin spotted the muggle typewriter.  Just like her MS professor said, there was a keyboard on it.  Erin could not help but wonder where the keys were though, since she did not see any. 

Her curiosity temporarily satiated, she stopped squirming in her seat.  For ten seconds.  Wondering what she could do to pass the time, Erin began twiddling her thumbs.  Deciding to grab a star chart out of her bookbag, Erin started doodling on it.  She began to doodle on Ursa Minor, trying to draw a cute picture of a baby bear.  Her artistic talent being what it was thouhg, it sort of looked like an oversized mangy dog with brown fur.  Wondering if she should try her luck drawing orion next, she decided to give it a go.

Her drawing skills resembled more of a stick figure this time, but Erin thought that was perfectly ok for a class that had constellations in them.  Though this held her attention for another minute she got bored quickly.  Chewing on her quill, she looked for something interesting to do.  Amazing, a place where people could quite literally view the cosmos, and Erin could not find a bright and shiny object in sight.  Wondering if she should comment about the lack of stars in an astronomy class, Erin decided not to.  She had a hard enough time in this class as it was.

((OOC: I am still quite sick, doped up and I suck at math when at my smaurt sur smartest. Will be breezing over the formula - just pretend whatever he writes is it.  ))

Tapendra beamed at Sophie. "Well done, Miss Flickwick!" he said, grinning. "5 points to Gryffindor! And yes, Mister Fox - I certainly can write that for you -" he pointed his wand at the board and the mathematical formula appeared. "Let me know if you want me to give you the full walk-through explanation for it."

He turned back to the class and tapped his wand on his palm again, thoughtfully. "Let's move onto the system you should all be very familiar with: constellations," he said. "Should your curriculm be following as it should, you should by now be able to find most of the popular constellations on demand, know the vast majority of the others, as well as their most famous - which are usually te brightest - stars. So, let's start off with one you should have been talking about recently - who can tell me which constellation the star Ras Alhague is a part of, and why said constellation is notable to wizards?"

"Thank you, Professor." Baxter peered at the formula, writing it down carefully in his notes. He made sure to note what each variable stood for. After copying everything down, the Ravenclaw boy studied the formula, nodding to himself after realizing he mostly understood what it was all about. Baxter figured they would learn to use it later in the year, or perhaps later on in his Hogwarts career, but he still intended to put it to memory. You never knew when you might need the information- even if it was just to impress other professors at some point.

The second question, however, was one that Baxter knew the answer to. "It's a part of Ophiuchus," the Ravenclaw stated. "It is an old and rarely used astrological sign- signified by a snake. In mythology it is identified with a healer who once brought a snake back to life. I can't remember the names of the people though," Baxter frowned, obviously frustrated that he couldn't recall that specific bit of information. "But considering the myth, I would assume that the constellation aids in the brewing of a lot of healing potions. Or in necromancy, since it talks about bringing the dead back to like. Inferi and all that stuff." He hoped he was right.

Astronomy was one of the few classes where Griselle actually felt awake and alert.  She was definitely more of a night owl, so her mind was more active in the later hours.  However, that didn't mean that she actually put more effort into this class.  She still sat near the back, drawing random doodles instead of taking notes and struggling to pay attention--though the struggle was a little less difficult.

Griselle felt a bit lost and confused as she listened to most of the questions and answers.  Damn, should have done the reading last night, she thought to herself.  Should've done any of the reading this term.  She did bring herself to actually copy down the equation that appeared on the board in detail, and hearing the question about Ras Alhague gave her confidence a little boost.  She had heard of it before, and she was sure that the answer was tucked away in her mind.  As she tried to recall that bit of information, she mindlessly sucked on the end of her quill, and a third year Ravenclaw answered first.  Damn again.

"Correct, on both accounts - sadly. Yes, Ophiuchus is associated with...darker magic. It's one of the reasons it was dropped from the Western  Zodiac that we use here at Hogwarts. It still can boost the power of both healing and dark spells, however," he said, smiling at Baxter. "Well done!"

He turned back to the class. "A little bit more and we'll move on to the more recent material," he said. "In your previous studies you should have been looking closely at the planets," he said, placing a hand on the globe but not changing the image yet. "If my books on the curriculm are correct you should have looked at Saturn in detail earlier this year. Obviously the most prominent feature of Saturn are its rings -" he tapped the globe and the planet appeared. "The rings of Saturn, as you can see, are in clearly divided bands - the names of which you should know. Take, for example, the F Ring - the system has gaps in the ring structure of varying sizes," he said, zooming the image to show the rings. "Do any of you know why these gaps occur?"

Erin was actually surprised she knew the answer to this question.  She did not know it from actually studying the material.  Of course not.  Erin knew it, because she was looking through a catalogue full of jewelery.  Either Bea or Bella must have slipped their astronomy textbook in there, but she remembered something about the moon pulling the rings away from the planet.  Of course, she was actually looking at ornate rings, but for some reason Saturn's rings seemed to have made an appearance.  Maybe they qualified as magic?  Erin decided that people wiser than her could answer that question. 

"Umm...is that because the moons of Saturn life them up?" Erin hazarded a guess, not really sure of herself.  Her contribution to class finished, she resumed doodling.  This time she was trying to draw the scales.  Wondering when they would get into astrology, she started to doodle the zodiac sign. 

Sitting at her desk in the Astronomy classroom, Megan quietly took notes at her seat. She was happy to notice that Callum didn't attempt to be in attendance during the class. After all, they didn't need another argument to break out again. Hopefully the class wouldn't be just some big mess again, as it was last time.

Megan took notes about the way the moon's phases effected potion-making. While she never saw herself using a love potion in the foreseeable future, she knew that the general idea of planning potions around the moon phases was important. For that matter, who knew how much information about the moon phases were even in the OWLs?

When Sophie talked up a storm about the formula for moon's maximum power. While she did comprehend parts of what her classmate said, the dizzying amount of information all stated at once was too much for her head. She attempted to interpret what Sophie said, and managed to take down a few notes that weren't comprehendible. Thankfully, Professor Trishna wrote the formula down on the board, which she copied almost immediately down onto a piece of parchment.

After taking notes a constellation, Megan heard the Professor ask about Saturn's rings. More specifically, he asked about the gaps in the rings. Thankfully, she did know some information about the rings. She was about to answer, when Erin beat her to it. After hearing Erin's contribution, she decided to add a few additional pieces of information. "Yes, the rings are made of ice, and one of Saturn's moons, I believe Mimas, pulls away some pieces of ice from its gravitational force, she added to Erin's answer.

Chris let out a slight yawn as he sat at his desk, with a piece of parchment out. Thankfully, Astronomy really didn't contain too much practical magic work, so his lack of spell casting shouldn't be too big of a problem in the class. However, it was at night - late at night. So, he did have some trouble getting used to sitting in a classroom so late at night.

For that matter, he had trouble paying attention, in addition to being tired in class. Chris never did sleep during a class, so he didn't worry about that. However, he could potentially miss pieces of information if he was in a daze during the class. Sure, he could always ask for the information later from a class mate, but he usually tried not to do that.

Chris did not mind Professor Trishna's addition of muggle knowledge to the cirriculum, but it took him a little bit of time of getting used to. After all, he didn't know too much about what muggle scientists knew. So, he tried to take the information in as best as he could, taking notes as Professor Trishna mentioned the different moon phases, and some of the classmates spoke up with answers to the questions.