Adorah was ready to get into the thick of it with the first years this evening. She was wearing a special set of robes Juniper had designed as a "new job" gift. The purple and blue fabric looked normal under the castle lights, but when they walked outside under the moonlight, it would sparkle with different constellations. She loved wearing it for the first years, especially as they began to explore the night sky.
"Welcome back to astronomy!" Professor Zumwalt greeted. "If you didn't turn in your homework from last week, be sure to set it on my desk before we head out because tonight, we are not staying here for very long," she said with a smile. "You are all going to become astronomers like we talked about last week. We'll go out and look up to the sky, unaided by any technology and just view it with our own eyes," she said, excited for the students. While she didn't remember the lesson that had set her love for astronomy is stone, she knew that the first look at the night sky, especially if it was clear enough, was very special. Also, many of the students who grew up under city lights would have never seen the sky as brilliantly as it is on the castle grounds, where the light pollution is minimal.
"Now, the sun is still setting; so, we are going to go over a few things you might be able to see once we head outside. First off, on an average night, you can expect to see between six to ten thousand stars with just your eyes, no telescopes or magic. Counting might be best left for someone else," she said with a slight laugh. "Once we arrive at the lawn and you look up, you'll notice one thing right away. There are going to be some very bright stars and some fainter and others even fainter than that. There are a few reasons why that is. First, not all stars give off the same light. Let me give you an example." Adorah waved her wand at two candles on her desk, watching them quickly light up. She walked up to the small, red candle first.
"I have this one candle here. It's small, and the wick is rather short on it. Next to it is this bright candle; the wick is longer and burning brighter. Stars are similar to this, some are dimmer by nature and others burn vastly brighter than others." Adorah paused for a moment, letting the students write down anything they thought was important.
Continuing on, Adorah began to speak again. "Secondly, they're not all the same distance from us. You might go out and see a rather bright star and next to it a faint star. It doesn't mean the faint star is smaller or dimmer than the larger brighter one - it could just be a matter of distance," Professor Zumwalt said, feeling as though she might be going into too much detail as one of the students yawned somewhere in the back. "The brightest star in the nighttime sky is called Sirius, the dog star. We'll also see Betelgeuse, which has a red color. Both of these will be rising over the South-Eastern Horizon. Along the southern horizon, you should see the Milky Way Galaxy, which is the galaxy we are located in and will be discussed in a later lesson during the fourth year." Adorah paused and looked around at the students. The yawning student was leaning on their hand trying to stay awake while others were scribbling furiously on their parchment. Adorah smiled and quickly blew out the candles on her desk.
"Alright, time for our adventure! Gather up your things, and let's head up to the grounds. We'll be near the cliffs where our view will be the most unobstructed. However, this isn't a free pass to go to the cliffs on your own." She locked the classroom once all the students were out and had them follow her down and out of the castle. Her robes started to glisten as they made their way close to their destination. The cliffs themselves were forbidden areas so she didn't dare take the students beyond the fencing, nor did she take her eyes off the students long enough to let any of them make their way up that way. She pointed out the things she had discussed during the lecture portion of the class and let the students overall enjoy the view before sending them up to their dorms for the night. Adorah enjoyed seeing some of the excited reactions from the students and was happy to be able to take them out on such a lovely night to view the stars.
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For full credit, RP the lesson.
