Professor Zumwalt was ready before students began to show up at her door. They slowly filed in, and she smiled at each student, greeting those who names she finally had down and then figuring out the others by process of elimination. As the bell rang, she cleared her throat. "Hello, hello!" she said gaining the attention of the students. "Last week, I left you with a question. Has anyone looked up the answer, as to why the stars move across the sky at night?" Adorah looked around the class asking her students. She saw one hand raised in the class and pointed to the student. "The Earth is spinning so they move as the Sun does," the student replied. "Yes! Exactly right, 2 points to you," Professor Zumwalt said with a smile. "We are spinning in a small circle around what is called an axis, like this globe I have here in the front of the room." Professor Zumwalt gestured to a floating, spinning globe that sat to the side of her desk.
"We are also spinning in a large ellipse around the Sun. I'll define those words on the board in just a moment," Adorah said, noticing some of her students seemed confused by the words. "Standing on Earth, we are actually traveling very, very fast through space. Above us in the sky, the stars appear to be fixed on a giant sphere around us. This is called a celestial sphere," Professor Zumwalt said, pausing for a moment to let them catch up. "In truth, stars are various distances from us but for now we will look up and talk about them as though they are all on this sphere around us. This sphere would look very similar to the bubble I placed around us last week but with the other half. The Earth actually blocks our view at what is called the horizon, causing us to only see part of the celestial sphere."
"Last week, we saw the difference between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. on the same day. Tonight we are going to go up... right now actually! You'll be able to see the sky at about 10 pm today about mid-November," Adorah said, hurrying the students to go up the stairs to the observatory deck. Once there, she began to speak again. "We talked about Vega last week, and Vega was roughly to the northwest, fairly close to the horizon." Professor Zumwalt pointed out the spot on the horizon the students would expect to see the star. However, the star wasn't there. In fact, she waved her wand, and then a magical line connected the dots, and the constellation Pegasus was visible there again.
"Two months ago, we would have needed to stay up well past your bedtimes in order to see our friend Pegasus, but now. at 10:14 p.m., he is visible to us. This is because of that giant path the Earth is taking around the Sun. To sum up the star movements in the sky, the stars will rise and set daily. They will also shift slowly based on the time of year it is, or rather, where we are on our path around the Sun. Now, let's head back downstairs!" She ushered the first years into the classroom, quickly making her way to stand back by her desk.
"We ran out of time this week! Next week, I'll have a list of words with their definitions that are so, so important to us. You'll need them to study. Once you've packed up, you're free to go to your dorms or to come and ask me questions if needed," Professor Zumwalt said, dismissing the class with a smile. She hoped they would be excited next week, for less lecturing and more looking at the nighttime sky.
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