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| Seventh Years: Lesson Two; *Archived* | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 12 2018, 07:15 PM (74 Views) | |
| Professor Sarah Harrington | Mar 12 2018, 07:15 PM Post #1 |
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Mother of Two Girls | Astronomy Professor | HS Graduate Ravenclaw
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[justify]Professor Sarah was beginning to feel as though the semester was starting to take a rapid pace. She wasn't prepared for it and she was certain her seventh years weren't nearly prepared for their exams and leaving the school. The school year was moving forward and Sarah was mindful to keep her students up on their curriculum for the year. "Today we are going to be discussing the Zodiac Constellations. Now, over the centuries the alignment of the stars and our calendar system on Earth have diverged from each other but we still keep the same system in relation to talking about our birthdays which I’m sure you've learned of the 12 signs in Divination. I was born at the end of September, meaning my sign is Libra, or the Scales constellation. But, its best viewed in the sky during June," she said with a smile. “Now, we have the 13 zodiac constellations in Astronomy, however in total the number of constellations in the nighttime sky are as endless as our imaginations. But, most modern studies agree to a number around 88. We shall just focus on the 13 zodiac ones for this class," Sarah said looking over the class. "Every year, the Sun and Earth do a dance, the Sun moves eastward in a circle around the sky. The path followed on the celestial sphere by the Sun is referred to as the ecliptic. Any constellations containing the ecliptic is called a zodiac constellation." Sarah paused to see how the students were keeping up. "Now I want you to take great care in learning the ecliptic, I understand that it's just an imaginary line, however it’s a very important one. While it's just the projection of our orbit onto the celestial sphere, it's an essential part of an astronomer’s vocabulary. You'll find that the celestial coordinate system we use to locate every star by, starts from the ecliptic." "The 13 Zodiac constellations are different from other constellations, and not just because of their placement in the nighttime sky. They have a mix of representation of animals, which our word zodiac derives from the Greek for 'Animal Circle' funnily enough," Professor Sarah said with a little laugh hoping her students would get the funny reference in her statement. "Now I will advise you to take notes on the Zodiac from the board as it'll help when reviewing for your NEWT examinations, these are written in order of how the sun passes over them during the year." Sarah waved her wand and a list of the 13 appeared on the board with a few details about them. [/justify] The Zodiac Constellations [justify] As the quills seemed to stop moving across the room Sarah stood up with her desk and directed the students to the North Tower. Telescopes and desks around the tower ready for the student's use. "Please use these items to locate Pisces and Gemini, try to locate them without a star chart as you all should be able to find your way across the night sky with ease now. However if you are struggling I have a few you can use to help locate the constellations. Once you've found them please map them out as you’ve been taught previously. Once mapped correctly you'll be able to leave and head to bed," Sarah said to her students and set them off to work. She was glad to see so many do so well that evening. Their usual Professor did a wonderful job teaching them. ___________________________________________________ No Homework this week, just attendance post. For those confused about some of the lesson's materials I've found some images courtesy of Wikipedia and earthsky.org of how the ecliptic works. [/justify] Images Astronomy,7,2 |
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| Tholomyes Fontaine | Mar 21 2018, 02:45 PM Post #2 |
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struggling artiste | class of 2046, former head boy
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[justify]The rose season always crept up on Tholomyes, despite the fact that he did end up spending a lot of time in the rose garden watching the flowers come into bloom, but he liked the season, he always sent one to Emma, since they were dating and she deserved all the flowers in the world, but he also knew to make sure he sent one to Lilyanna, the last he would sent to her. It was crucial that he did so. He never wanted to not show that he appreciated her friendship, the friendship she had extended to him over the years. On top of that Tholomyes was attempting to spend as much time both studying and on the pitch in an attempt to be ready for the upcoming quidditch game, a game he was sure the ravenclaw team could win, but more importantly he had glasses he needed to study for and study hard for. With this being his NEWT year he had to work hard and study hard to ensure he did well. With that though he knew he had to get ready for class, so he left the dorm room and headed to the class. This would likely be a good but long week. Tholomyes walked into the astronomy classroom and greeted the professor politely before taking his seat in the room. He was curious about what they might be doing in this class especially after the first class of the semester had been about aliens. It hadn't been great but he had learned about something he hadn't otherwise thought he would. The teen looked up at the professor as she got started, he was also glad that they were covering these. He hadn't taken divination since he hadn't been interested in the subject but had he known that they would've covered star signs at some point he might've been more interested. he had his quill ready on the page and he began writing down what the professor was saying about it, going for in depth in to the constellations than he was sure divination had. He found it interesting, a little more complex than he had thought it would be but he didn't have a problem keeping up with what was being said, so he was able to get everything down. He looked at whay was written on the board about star signs and began to write bits and pieces of that down too for his future NEWT revisions. After that they were taken to the north tower where they were able to actually find two of the constellations. It didn't take Theo long to find the ones he was meant to look for and shortly after he had the professor wrapped up the lessona and dismissed them. [/justify] |
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8:15 PM Jul 10