Lesson 1: Introduction to Astronomy

[Emile Noir]

Emile Noir stood in front of his desk, waiting for his students to enter the class room. He frowned as he looked at the clock. Normally it shouldn't take long to climb the stairs to the Astronomy tower. Emile did it everyday. Sighing, Emile ran his hand through his curly brown hair. He frowned again as his fingers got caught in the curls. He then straightened his dark robes, the bottom billowing on the floor. He really picked a size rather to large for himself. But he didn't care.

He straightened up when a few students walked in."Please all of you answer the warm up question on the board, please."


-Warm Up Question: Name 5 ancient cultures in which Astronomywas found from and explain why.

[Miranda Fear]

Miranda raised her hand, but she didn't wait to be called on. Somehow that bothered her a bit. "Egyptian, Chinese, Greek and...I can't think of the others." Miranda didn't like that she couldn't think of all the cultures. She thought that she knew them. But they just weren't comming to her. She frowned in frustration.

[Elliott Dark Dames]

Elliott walked into the classroom and found Miranda there and some students he didn't know. He knew the answer to the question on the board and raised his hand to answer but Miranda just blurted it out without being called on. This annoyed Elliott very much as he lowered his hand slightly.

[prongsxanimagus]

Lasair stood behind Elliott.

"Show off..." he mumbled to himself, as Maranda said the answer immediately.

Lasair couldn't think of the other culture though, so he kept his hand down. He was tired from his first classes. He let a yawn escape him. He had never been one for Astronomy. The only reason that he was in this classroom was because he couldn't choose his classes till Third Year. However, he would do his best to pass.

[Circe Sommers]

Circe was pretty sure she knew the others but wasn't completley sure. She raised her hand anyways. She couldn't believe her follow house mate would just blurt out the answer like that. She hoped that she didn't get any points taken off for that.

[Emile Noir]

Emile sighed as Ms. Fear blurted out the answer. He was sure that she didn't mean anything by it, but he said, "Ms. Fear, blurting out again will result as a deduction from your house, I hope you know. But since it's the first day, I will let that slide. Now however, you did answer the question correctly. But I need other cultures."

Professor Noir's silver gaze glided over his class."Ms. Sommers. If you will please."

[Circe Sommers]

Circe put her hand down and cleared her throat. "Like she said there is Egyptian, Chinese, and Greek. The two others are the Jews and the Babylonians." she wasn't exactly sure if she was right but it was worth a shot. She thought she remembered some of thoses names from her dad's old text books she had read before.

[Emile Noir]

Emile nodded as the young Slytherin girl answered the rest of the question. "Very good, five points to Slytherin."

Professor Noir then looked over his class. His grey eyes landed on a very confident-looking Gryffindor.

"Mr. Ruarc, can you explain to me why Astronomy was so very important to these cultures?" Emile asked in a light tone.

[prosperdarkkon]

Prosper sat beside Lasair Ruarc. He didn't really care if he was sitting by a Gryffindor. Prosper never cared about those little things. And He was sure Lasair thought the same. Prosper's eyes shifted towards the teacher he called on Ruarc. Prosper then nudged Lasair, giving him an encouraging smile. Some of these questions were hard.

[Emile Noir]

"Well, alright then (moving on). Anyone else have an explanation?" Emile asked, looking around the room. Surely there would be someone that had a deceant answer. "Mr. Dames. How about you?"

[Elliott Dark Dames]

Elliott smiled as the Professor chose him. "Was it because they didn't have any entertainment back then so they use to star gaze in the sky and record the facts?" Elliott said as he took a guess. He wasn't sure about this.

[Artemis Zeal]

Artemis placed a hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle. She knew that he was sort of right,but the way he said it was funny. She waited patiently to hear Professor Noir's answer.

[Emile Noir]

Emile smiled a little with the rest of the class. Although his answer was correct on some parts, it just sounded funny. But his smile was easily wiped away before he spoke.

"Correct, but they did have entertainment. Any other guesses? Ms. Zeal, perhaps?"Emile asked with a slight smile, pointing his wand to the Hufflepuff girl.

[Artemis Zeal]

Artemis stiffen slightly,but sighed. Merlin,Karma really did hate her. She looked at Professor Noir with a hesitant look

"People were curious about the things they saw up in the sky. They wanted to know why this certain thing did that and whatnot. They were curious... just like we are." She said,shrugging slightly.

[Emile Noir]

"Very good, Ms. Zeal. Five points for Hufflepuff,"Emile said with a smile. He looked over his class, to see if they were paying attention. Satisfied, Emile walked in front of the board before continuing.

"The cultures also used the stars to plan their yearly calenders as well. Now in the muggle and wizarding world, there are two branches of astronomy. Observational and theoretical. I want you all to think about those two things and for your homework, you'll have to explain them to me. And then in your paper, explain the differences of Astronomy and Astrology. Your paper should be no less than two paragraphs. You are all dismissed."

(Please post your homework answers in the Homework thread for Lesson 1)

(And also, homework is due April 22. After that, a new lesson will begin. Any new comers, I'm sorry to say that you'll have to jump in next semester. Or the latest lesson. I might just see how that goes.)