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Class starts at 11:30 PM, and runs until 5:00 AM Today's Class Schedule: a. 11:30 PM-4:30 AM - Charting, Questions, Projects. b. 4:30 AM-7:00 AM -  Charting and Observation of Mars & Venus Telescopes will  necessary for class. Due to today's activity, this class is ideal for asking questions of both Professor Trishna and your older classmates. 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; underneath 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 slightly above the floor with steps leading to them. The original Astronomy classroom looked like this.

OOC Note
This class is open to all students, but is required for the first years.
This class takes place on a Friday. All grades had their normal classes early in the week.
This class is an all nighter! Students are expected to stay up until the rise of Mars and Venus. First years will be charting the movement of stars over the night. The other years will be charting, getting questions answered, and their charts corrected and finessed.
In-game, this is also one of the first clear nights in several weeks. The moon is in its Waning Gibbious phase, and so must be included in charts by rule. It is still bright enough to block out the stars nearby.

MAY 15 2009
Legend/Notes
Any Constellation mentioned in the first list that not noted as 'setting' will not leave the sky. They do shift, however.
Setting: Any Constellation marked as this will be gone below horizon by the next time cycle. These are difficult to chart, as they often have to be done quickly.
Rising: Also near the horizon, but becoming more visible as time passes.
Italics: These are near the horizon and so would be difficult for the first years to chart. These are not necessarily setting or rising.
"A" Group: First years are expected to know these somewhat well by now. This is the requited group for their finals as well (more or less).
"B" Group: Other years. The first years may knows these, but no first year will know all of them. The 7th years are expected to.

11:30 PM
Zodiac: Libra, Virgo, Leo, Gemini, Cancer
a. Draco, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Bootes, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Lynx, Hercules, Serpens/Ophiuchus, Cygnus, Lyra, Cepheus
b. Lacerta, Vulpecula, Auriga, Camelopardalis, Delphinus, Aquila, Corona Borealis, Corvus, Crater, Hyrda, Sextans, Canes Venatici, Leo Minor, Capis Minor, Corna Berenices
Setting: Corvus, Crater, Hyrda, Sextans, Capis Minor
Rising: Aquila, Libra, Delphinus
Planets: Saturn, Ceres

1:30AM
Setting : Gemini, Corvus, Crater, Sextans, Auriga, Saturn
Rising : Scutum, Equuleus, Pegasus, Andromeda

3:30 AM
Note: The pre-dawn glow will make seeing the following Constellations difficult:
Perseus, Triangulum, Andromeda, Aries, Pegasus, Aquarius, Auriga, Lynx
Setting: Ceres, Leo, Virgo, Libra
Rising: Capricorn, Aquarius, Aries, the Moon, Neptune, Jupiter

4:30 AM
Note: Due to the Sun being just below the horizon, all but the following are now impossible to see:
Planets: Mars, Venus, Jupiter
Other: Vega, the Moon

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The Astronomy tower was a bit different, today. The desks were against the far wall, neatly stacked; the globe was turned off and sat as a simple white cloth ball, still dominating the room, but no long levitating or bright with the image of a planet or star. The high lights were on and the fireplaces burned.

Taking the desk's place around the globe was a roughly circular setup of tables. On one, facing the western archway, sat piles of blank circular star charts, quills, ink, and a few spare telescopes.

The test of the tables were covered in supplies. One had blankets and pillows, and the other three had food. Most of it was healthy, but it was rather lost to the dazzle of donuts, cocoa, eclairs and coffee. There was also a small cake, which was missing about a rather large chunk.

Atop the globe lay Kepler, the grey kneazle graceful and positioned to eye the room's ever corner. He was asleep.

The windows had been enchanted to show a fantastic scene; the room appeared to float in space, near a bright, gently swirling mass of blue gas and light, almost like a nebula, the classroom accompanied by two small planets. The western arch's window was open, however, the white sheet that played 'window' during the day pulled back to allow students access to the circular walkway outside. Telescope stands were set up all along it.

"Hello, all of you," Tapendra said, appearing from the dark, murky and jelly-baby devouring depths of his desk. "Star charting tonight, if you haven't guessed, though tonight is a bit different." Brushing himself off , he frowned, annoyed to find the house elves hadn't been dusting his desk. Must have been a response to him making them trash store the school's decorative armillary sphere, he concluded. Passive aggressive little-

"Today will be something of a preview of your final exams, though I can assure you the exam will not take this long. Tonight, you'll be focusing on charting the movement of stars. You'll be doing two types of charts, tonight; the first is your standard chart, of which you will make 4," he tried to ignore the groans. "And the second you will be making is a little simpler, in some ways. I want you all to pick a constellation and you'll chart its movement throughout the night. You'll be doing a new chart of that every 30 minutes, hence the amount of papers." He nodded to the tables and the stack of papers.

"And finally, at the end of class, we'll be observing Venus and Mars, and then you can all go and sleep. For you non-first years, this is a good time to get help on your charts, as well. Any questions?"

All nighters. Bugger-it.

It was Professor Trishna's passion for the stars that warranted events like this. Philo was told by his brother and sister, Foster and Felicia, that Astronomy classes and exams typically lingered a couple hours past midnight. But surely they would have told him if events had ever lasted this long. That goodness tomorrow was Saturday. Philo figured he would sleep through lunch.

Well, he had his class materials, a blanket, a week's worth of unfinished crosswords under his notes just in case, Arlaug stuffed in his bag, and six cups of cocoa now in him. Perhaps he could stay awake by running to the bathroom in-between every half hour check point for charting.

Surrounded by sleepy eyed peers, Philo was fiddling with a school telescope and a well worn pair of omnioculars, passed down from dad. He could just about twist the eyepiece of the omnioculars onto the end of the telescope. Adjusting for distortion, maybe he could playback the shifting of the stars should he forget a checkpoint.

As Professor Trishna introduced the class, Philo thought of a question. Not "Why are we pulling a whole night to study Astronomy" that would be rude. Philo didn't mind Astronomy, it was like a great big connect-the-dots game to him when remembering the constellations. But even with the heavy muggle perspective he never saw the big use of Astronomy in magic. While cool to know a lot about the galaxy, to Philo he didn't see the point when you're stuck on one planet.

Instead, he raised his hand for his real question. "Professor Trishna? I know solar and lunar eclipses are infrequent occurrences but would we ever get a perspective from Earth of Mars and Venus perfectly lined up? Like Venus eclipsing Mars or something?"

Raine Almasy stared at her rolled up charts with obvious concentration while Professor Trishna was speaking. It was cold and she was nearly completely wrapped up in a cream white cloak that obscured the lower half of her face. Why oh why, she repeatedly asked herself,did I think this was a good idea? The answer never varied: the truth was, she happened to be a little behind with her Astronomy work this term and needed to be here. Rolling out her charts quietly, she felt a little weight lift off her chest, eyes darting from one inked constellation to another. It wasn't that bad. Not exemplar but her two years in the Astronomy club had not been wasted.

"And finally, at the end of class, we'll be observing Venus and Mars, and then you can all go and sleep. For you non-first years, this is a good time to get help on your charts, as well. Any questions?" Raine finally glanced up from her work and looked at Trishna before glancing over the rest of the students. Mostly first years. She stifled a yawn and pictured her full flask of coffee, nested in her bag with a worn-out Astronomy textbook.

It was still too early for caffeine if they were going to be up until four. Raine was not especially sleepy; she had been tossing and turning in bed all week, really. Right now she was riding a sugar buzz of lollipops and licquorice. A first year Ravenclaw was asking a question but Raine didn't quite catch it and didn't have a desire to. The Gryffindor struggled with her cloak as she finished unrolling her charts and started searching for a quill to begin filling out the missing half of a particularly sparse-looking quadrant.

Ambrose looked blankly at the paperwork, Professor Trishna and the rest of the room. When someone had mentioned optional he hadn't been inclined to come at all, but not only had Professor Trishna implied it would be essential for him to try and improve his marks, Tim had to attend and had laughed that Astronomy wasn't hard and Ambrose was a wimp.

Tim, his first year, Ravenclaw brother didn't usually call people wimps, but having been at home over the Easter with Ambrose, and having seen their father, Francis try to tackle Ambrose's understanding of the heavens, Tim had seemingly felt justified. Then to top it all off, Theta had reminded him several times about his exams, and how if he improved on them this year it would take such a weight off his dad's mind.

So here Ambrose was, arms folded as he saw Tim studiously set out without question, and one of his Ravenclaw classmates pose a question that sounded like a NEWT question. From behind him, Theta gave him a little push.
"You'll need these, come on. I can't sit here and help you, I've got my own work to do too, Ambrose." She chivvied him towards the sheets, and his expression turned sour, shrugging her off moodily.
"Alright, I'm not stupid." He muttered grumpily, stalking off to claim some space, bumping into a fellow Gryffindor as he did.

Realising his error, he muttered apologies.
"Sorry Raine, I didn't mean to. D'ya mind?" He eyed the fifth year suspiciously before setting up beside her. He stole another glance her way. "Sometimes I wonder if these charts could form like the most epic dot-to-dot drawing." A grin broke out across his face at the thought of doing it.

Raine's arms were carefully angled around her chart, her left hand holding an eagle's quill steadily and her right hand on one of the stars of canis minor. It didn't look right. There was something off about the distances that she could not quite put her hand on, not even literally. She stared hard at the constellation, eyebrows drawn together-- and nearly jumped when someone bumped into her left shoulder suddenly.

"Sorry Raine, I didn't mean to. D'ya mind?" The culprit was a third year Gryffindor that she vaguely recognized. His name sprung to mind- Ambrose Pepper - and she shook her head, allowing a little more space for him to set down his work. Raine moved her telescope, unused, aside. She felt her junior eye her for a moment before he rolled out his sheets and tools. Having rarely spoken with him, she wasn't sure what to say and continued trying to estimate the scale on her chart.

"Sometimes I wonder if these charts could form like the most epic dot-to-dot drawing." Ambrose remarked and Raine could practically hear the grin in his voice. She glanced up from her work, swallowing back a biting remark about the absurdity of connecting an 'epic' constellation, and produced what she hoped was an appropriately amused expression:

"There are certainly enough stars for it," the fifth year murmured before indicating towards the windows, where space seemed to drift by in an endless infinity: "Though it's hard to believe something so vast can be reduced to a map of dots and lines." Her face relaxed as she stared out at one of the windows past Professor Trishna. She really did like this class: it was relaxing.

Turning back to Ambrose with that same relaxed air, she asked: "How are you with your charts- gotten anywhere yet?"

"There are certainly enough stars for it, though it's hard to believe something so vast can be reduced to a map of dots and lines."

"Yeah, and hard to do." Ambrose echoed. Navigating with a telescope more than a few inches made him feel sea sick - well it was better than the sick feeling he got in his stomach every time one of his spells went wrong.

"How are you with your charts- gotten anywhere yet?" Raine asked, and Ambrose had a fleeting feeling she was doing it only to be polite to a house mate, and felt guilty, but it passed almost instantly.

"Er, short answer, no." Ambrose shrugged. "I get the stars mixed up - its a good job I'm not a wizard pirate, would get lost all the time." He giggled, "We'd probably end up in Russia instead of the Bahamas." He giggled again, almost upsetting his telescope.
"Sorry, I'm probably not helping your charting." Ambrose peered over to see her chart was considerably more full than his.
"Are you going to study Astronomy for a NEWT?" He asked, "My cousin Theta is doing a NEWT in it this summer and she says its quite hard."

"We'd probably end up in Russia instead of the Bahamas." Ambrose Pepper giggled and Raine's grip on her quill tightened. Wizard pirates and an odd understanding of Geography, she mused and bit her tongue to halt a mean laugh. "Sorry, I'm probably not helping your charting," the third year continued in a more sensible tone and Raine shook her head politely, not really sure if this was disrupting her work. She would probably have to wait to speak to the professor about her chart issues anyway.

Looking up from a brief examination of Raine's charts, Ambrose asked her if she was going to be taking Astronomy as a NEWT. "My cousin Theta is doing a NEWT in it this summer and she says its quite hard," he informed her and she cast a glance over to the seventh years, taking note of Theta Pepper. The cousins clearly did not enjoy the same subjects. Looking back at her housemate Raine smiled dryly, "I can imagine. As much as I do enjoy these sessions, Astronomy is not my forte."

A thought occurred to her as she said this and the Gryffindor added: "It involves sitting around for too long. I'd rather be moving about." Raine felt a teasing urge to get up and stretch, her limbs stiff from the day's lessons and the evening's cold. She pushed the feeling away and instead took a gander at Ambrose's charts, instinctively reaching out with her quill to relabel one of his constellations.

The students got down to business, for which he was grateful. Philo's question made him tilt his head as he thought, though. It was possible, theoretically, speaking. As he considered, he paced the tables, making sure students to ready, not often looking to Philo.

Tapendra's lips moved as he quietly did his best to remember the orbits of the respective planets. "In theory, yes, they can transit - Venus would occult Mars," he said after a few moments. "Though I can't remember if it's occurred and we've seen it, but it'd be vanishingly rare - once every 1,000 years at best, perhaps," he said, smiling slightly. "Not something I'd look to happen this morning, haha."

Question answered, he headed outside and began his usual patrol of the students, walking behind them and eyeing their charts critically. He paused by Ambrose and Raine, kneeling down on the flagstones between them, looking at Ambrose's chart.

"Mm," he said, making an odd little sound of concern. "You've got Cepheus labelled as Pegasus, Pepper," he told him, gently. "Pegasus won't rise for about 2 to 4 more hours." He patted the boy's shoulder in what he hoped was an encouraging way.

"I can imagine. As much as I do enjoy these sessions, Astronomy is not my forte." Raine replied, while Ambrose peered into his telescope, tongue poking out.

"It involves sitting around for too long. I'd rather be moving about." Ambrose blinked and withdrew his eye from the end of the telescope and looked at her.
"Yeah, me too - I'm more into magical creatures, if I'm honest." He turned his head to look again at the sky, but caught Raine leaning over to look at his chart. Her quill extended, and Ambrose paused, letting her rename one of his constellations. She had neater handwriting than him too.

"Thanks." He smiled, and tilted his head to read what she'd changed it to. "Oh... blimey I'm looking in the wrong place again." Cringing, Ambrose looked up with his own eyes into the sky to try and get his bearings again. Behind them both, Professor Trishna had approached unnoticed by the younger Gryffindor until he knelt down between the two Gryffindors.

"Mm." Ambrose jumped slightly and turned, surprised "You've got Cepheus labelled as Pegasus, Pepper"
"I have?" Ambrose asked, clueless. He peered down, realising that wasn't the one Raine had just amended for him either, it was another one he'd got wrong. "Oh..." His shoulders deflated.
"Pegasus won't rise for about 2 to 4 more hours." Professor Trishna explained and patted him on the shoulder.
"Really? Bother. I bet I've mucked the rest of it up now too. Sorry - er, thanks Professor." Ambrose's features drooped and he leant down to pick up a blank chart to start again.

"You see, what did I say, Russia." Ambrose shrugged to Raine. "I have a feeling this is going to be a loooong night."

"You see, what did I say, Russia. I have a feeling this is going to be a loooong night." Ambrose said in his unassuming manner. Raine couldn't help but laugh this time- because she agreed, although perhaps not for the same reason as her housemate. This was certainly going to be a long evening, at this rate.

"Oh, wait!" The witch suddenly exclaimed under her breath and quickly turned to their teacher, who was about to draw away after correcting Pepper: "Professor, could you take a look at this chart? I think there's something wrong with my canis minor, the proportions don't look right," she clumsily struggled with her cloak again while pulling her chart closer to show him her sketch.

Raine frowned at the  ursa minor on her chart again, wondering if she had gotten it right or if she had been mistaken when transferring sight to paper. Maybe the sugar was taking its toll and she just wasn't seeing right. It occurred to her, in addition to those other reasons, that perhaps her chart was not precise because she had refrained from asking for help in Astronomy lessons this year. In her previous years, Sanya had been there to correct her. A tiny, prick of pain erupted in her chest but she just bit her lip and ignored it. She felt glad Ambrose was there, it was better than being by herself in this particular class.

On the terrance closest to the windows sat Heliotrope LeJean. She gazed up at the night sky. Her first chart was partially completed. Her quill was poised halfway through the plotting of Ursa Minor in relation to Ursa Major. It took about a minute to crane her neck back down to her parchment, then another two minutes to complete the Ursa Minor sketch with methodical slowness.

These names of the constellations were different than the ones taught to her by the merpeople of Loch Lomond on moonlit nights. Cassiopeia was the "proper" name of "The Swimming Maiden" and she was represented as sitting in a chair and not swimming. Similarly "Namorg the Kracken Slayer" had been reduced to "Hercules" and traded his trident and Hippocampus for a club and a pair of legs. She was getting better adjusting to the new names but anyone who looked at her chart may have wondered why "Bootes" was mislabeled as "The Great Kelpie Rearing Off the Grindylows."

Class with the first years.  Even with the drive to be as prepared for the upcoming OWLs as possible, the prospects of sharing an actual class with them was almost enough motivation to take advantage of the 'optional' nature of this all nighter.  There was plenty of drama and conflict amongst the fifth years but the first years seemed almost volatile in comparison. 

But, Sasha had missed enough classes this year.  It would be foolish to miss another because of a few ill-mannered kids.  He'd just try to stick to himself and focus on the assignment.

Sasha paused for a moment by the globe and made a quiet clicking noise to alert the sleeping kneazle to his presence before giving the feline a slight scratch under the chin.  He gathered a small stack of parchment and a pillow and settling himself in a spot by one of the windows. 

Clusters of students were gathered around the room - some murmuring together as they worked, others making their way through their charts individually.  The assignment was a relatively straightforward one - superficially, at least, it seemed like it would challenge their observational skills more than anything else.  Sasha looked over towards the north, located Polaris and, consequentially, Ursa Minor, and oriented himself to the constellations closest to the North Star.  Following the lines created by two of the stars of Cassiopeia and two of the stars of Auriga, he located the two brightest stars of Perseus: Mirfak and Algol. 

He hunched over his page and started plotting the visible remaining stars. 

He knelt back down as Almasy called him over, his knuckles coming to rest on the cold stone as he leaned forward. He peered at her chart, and then looked outwards to the horizon, lips pressed together as he looked between the two.

"Ah," he said. "You've compensated and put Procyon[1] on your chart. If the star's below the horizon when you get to that constellation, go ahead and note that. As for proportion..." He looked around for a moment. "A protractor or transparent ruler helps a lot - if you don't have one, there's a few inside the tower you can use. If you hold it up and put the tip on one star and your finger nail on the other, it helps keep your distances much more exact." He imitated the gesture with his quill.

"Other than that, your chart seems fine," he said. "Did that help at all?"

1.	Technically this (Capis Minor) is the first constellation to set - its lower star, Procyon (also its brightest), sets at 11:25(ish), but the rest - namely  Gomeisa - is visible 'til around 11:40pm.

"Other than that, your chart seems fine," Professor Trishna said: "Did that help at all?"

Raine was already getting out her set of clear plastic rulers. She turned to him and politely smiled: "Yes. Thank you professor." It was odd that she never really paid the teacher much attention- he was after all the Head of Sanya's former house. Astronomy was just one of those subjects where the content rather overrode other observations, she supposed. As the thought occurred to her, Raine looked out towards the stars again and squinted at where Capis Minor was supposed to be- it was setting and there would be nothing to observe anymore in a little while.

As she turned back to her work and to look at Ambrose Pepper, the Gryffindor remarked pleasantly: "Good thing I came in today."

One chart down, and some downtime until the next checkpoint.

The telescope and the omnioulars weren't going to stick by themselves so Philo had fastened them together with spellotape. The clunky union had to be held in booth hands and Philo strained it skywards to peek. Blurry. He lowered his hands and fiddled with the knobs, changing the focus. It took a few more repetitions to dial in the right settings.

Selecting a point in the sky, Philo fumbled for the Forward/Reverse lever to test. In the struggle he knocked the play-by-play on...

And as he panned over Draco, faint purple lettering appeared in the overlay of the viewfinder. It disappeared as Philo continued on but he panned back, finding the point when the lettering appeared.

Draco Dou fizzled on and off in the viewfinder.

Philo frowned. This pair of omnioculars was old, back from when his father Frederick first attended a professional quidditch match. It had always been slow on the uptake when recognizing new quidditch maneuvers, a forgivable defect for the aged device.

But how the heck did omnioculars set towards the "Draco" constellation trigger the first syllables of the "Draco Double-back" otherwise known as the Draconian Double-back move popularized by the Bigonville Bombers, where the chasers pull a reserve swoop serpentine through the teams beaters.

That seemed more than sheer coincidence.

But, feeling hungry, Philo set aside the mechanical monstrosity and went up to the snack table for a doughnut.