Professor Zephyrmoon ignored the students as they filed into the classroom, having to listen to their murmured conversations before starting the lesson at exactly the lesson starts time, "Right, shut up everyone. The lesson has started. Has anyone looked up the answer, as to why the stars move across the sky at night?" Percival looked around the class asking her students. He 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, it does. I suppose you can have 1 house point for that answer" Percival didn't feel like awarding any more than that. "We are spinning in a small circle around what is called an axis, like this globe here at the front of the room." Professor Zephyrmoon gestured to a floating, spinning globe that he assumed belonged to the professor who normally taught this class.
"We are also spinning in a large ellipse around the Sun. 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 Zephyrmoon 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 so get moving! You'll be able to see the sky at about 10 pm today about mid-November," Percival said, hurrying the students to go up the stairs to the observatory deck. Once there, he began to speak again. "We talked about Vega last week, and Vega was roughly to the northwest, fairly close to the horizon." Professor Zephyrmoon pointed out the spot on the horizon the students would expect to see the star. However, the star wasn't there. In fact, he 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! Hurry up." He directed the first years into the classroom and made his way to the front of the class. Zephyrmoon's passion was Astronomy and talking about the stars was one of the few things that made him happy in life.
"Next week, I'll have a list of words with their definitions that are important to us. You'll need them to study. Once you've packed up, you're free to go to your dorms. Class dismissed." Professor Zephyrmoon said, dismissing the class.
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For full credit, RP the lesson.
First poster to answer the question will earn 1 house point. You're welcome!
