Professor Alexander O'Rourke
September 16, 2012 10:01 PM
Intermediate Astronomy by Professor Alexander O'Rourke
Professor O’Rourke spent hours looking over his lesson plans, trying to narrow down the most important aspects of astrology. Not exactly the easiest feat once you stop and think about it. The dictionary defines astronomy as the study of objects and matter outside of the Earth's atmosphere and their physical and chemical properties. The study of the universe. The study of, well, everything."Start at the beginning, Alex. The basics." He thought to himself as he paced around the Astronomy classroom. There was a fine line between being informative and overwhelming when it came to teaching. A line he was well aware of, particularly when it came to the universe.
"Might as well start with our solar system, since most humans believe the universe revolves around us..." Alex decided, drawing his wand from the pocket just inside his robes. Pointing it at the ceiling, he muttered a few words before the Milky Way spewed forth from the tip, canvassing the ceiling with planets and other celestial bodies.
He then turned wand to the blackboard and watched as a piece of chalk rose into the air, and began writing the words ' What is Astronomy?' Alex nodded slightly in approval, it wasn't his best handwriting, but it'd do. Stepping back to his desk, the astronomy professor straightened his cream colored robes before taking a seat on the edge of it, facing the room before him.
“Welcome to intermediate Astronomy.” He started, placing his wand back inside his robes as his students made their way to their seats. “I’m Professor O’Rourke, and yes, I am English.” He added with a slight smile. Since Alex had been in Arizona, he’d been asked where he was from more times that he cared to count. He figured it’d be easier just to get it out of the way, and hopefully, considering English wizards weren’t a complete novelty; his class would be able to understand him well enough.
The astronomy professor let his hazel eyes survey the classroom for a few more moments, making sure everyone was more or less settled before he started the bulk of the lesson.
"Astronomy…” He started, scratching the back of his neck. “What is it? How do we use it? What are celestial bodies, and constellations? By the end of term, you’ll be able to answer all of these questions. We’ll be covering quite a bit of information, so if at any time you are unsure about something, do feel free to ask. Also, while I am all for learning, this class doesn’t require wands, so please keep them tucked away.”
“The following handout will be used throughout this lesson. Please take one and pass them on.” Professor O’Rourke said, rising from his desk, and handing a stack of parchment from his desk to the student sitting at the end of the first row. “You’ll find it particularly helpful for the homework portion of this lesson, but you may also refer to your textbooks.” Alex folded his arms across his chest and began to pace in front of his class, his brow furrowed slightly as he chose his next course of action.
“Astronomy is the study of the universe—the stars, the planets, other galaxies, black holes, asteroids—everything. It is not to be confused with astrology which, forgive me, is complete rubbish. Astrologers believe that the position of the stars and planets determine an individual's personality and future. Astronomers study the actual stars and planets, but have found no evidence supporting astrological theories. In short, astrology is simply another form of divination. Whether or not you believe in that is up to you, but the only Cancer and Gemini we’ll be studying are the constellations.”
“Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Prehistoric cultures left behind astronomical artifacts such as the Egyptian monuments and Nubian monuments, and early civilizations such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese, Indians, Iranians and Maya performed methodical observations of the night sky. It has been used in navigation; Polaris, or the North Star, helped sailors find their way at night. Astronomy allowed people to mark the passage of time through the making of calendars and sundials, which, along with ceremonial uses, allowed them to determine the best time for planting and sowing their crops.
“Without Astronomy, we wouldn’t have watches, compasses, calendars, or a number of technologies that were born of astrological discoveries. We’d also still believe that we revolved around the sun, which, we all know to be erroneous.” Alex paused for a moment, and ran a hand through his artfully disheveled hair. He feared he was getting a little long winded, and decided to get to the assignment. Long lectures often caused him to lose students, and he had to mindful of the fact that he was in the presence of 13 year olds.
“At this point in your lives, you all should know our relative position in the ever expansive universe. Our solar system consists of the Sun, nine planets, their moons, planetoids, asteroids, meteors, and comets. Our solar system is also part of the Milky Way galaxy, along with 100-400 billion other stars and Merlin knows how many other planets.” The professor turned his gaze upward, toward the swirling Milky Way on the ceiling. There was something about the universe that always made him feel particularly insignificant. He took a deep breath to shake the feeling before proceeding, and allowing his gaze to sweep the room once more.
“Moving on, to start to explore and attempt to understand something as massive as the universe, it’s best to start small. For today’s assignment, I’m going to have you lot split into groups. Choose a planet from our solar system, Pluto still counts in my eyes, and write a brief summary on its characteristics. If your chosen planet has moons, include those as well. Place them on my desk when you are finished, and as I stated previously, don’t be afraid to ask if you need assistance.” Alex found his way back to his desk and sat behind it, leaning back casually as his class formed their groups.
((Welcome to Astronomy! Please note your house in the author line so I can award points appropriately. Also, keep the posting rules in mind, and feel free to tag Professor O’Rourke if needed.))
Subthreads: Astronomy Handout by Alexander O'Rourke
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Professor Alexander O'Rourke
Intermediate Astronomy
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Professor Alexander O'Rourke
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Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus
September 21, 2012 10:55 AM
Drops of Jupiter. by Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus
When Cepheus had decided to take Astronomy, it had been with reluctance. He didn’t want to take the optional upper-level courses, but Father had pressured him into taking one. Out of the three, Muggle Studies was most certainly out of the question. Divination was rubbish, in Cepheus’s opinion. That left Astronomy, and so Cepheus had signed his name feeling like he’d signed away his soul to the devil.His soul, however, had not gone to the devil, but to someone else entirely. Another Englishman. As soon as Professor O’Rourke opened his mouth, Cepheus’s English heart leapt with joy. He felt as if he’d been separated from his countrymen for too long, the adults especially. He listened to his professor speak, taking in the normalcy of his speech. Being surrounded by Americans was sure to dilute one’s accent, which Cepheus had tried to fight against. It would be much easier to do so now. The thought of being taught by his own countryman made Cepheus smile. He had a new favourite professor just on principle.
The only bad thing about this class was that it didn’t require wands. He hoped that, sometime in the term, they would be using wands for something. Lectures and classwork weren’t nearly as fun without them. Still, he tucked his wand into the inner pocket of his robes. Being parted from his wand sometimes made him feel like he had lost a significant part of himself.
The rest of Professor O’Rourke’s speech mostly went over Cepheus’s blonde head, though he drank in his words eagerly. Even at thirteen, it wasn’t unlike Cepheus to attach himself to anything familiar. It was much easier to attach to respectable adults than seemingly respectable peers. All that Cepheus really took away from that was that astrology, a form of divination, was rubbish, there were loads of stars in the universe, a solar system and something called the Milky Way. It was obvious Cepheus hadn’t paid much attention in his previous astronomy lessons back home.
It was clear that Professor O’Rourke was passionate about the subject, and so Cepheus took it upon himself to find that same passion. Of course, if he was in England meeting this professor, he wouldn’t be quite so taken with him. However, Professor O’Rourke represented a piece of home for the lad, and though Cepheus did not mind Arizona as much as he had previous years, he still missed his home country dearly.
Splitting into group was not a new concept though taking intermediate courses was. Cepheus immediately chose what he knew to be the biggest planet: Jupiter. It was a complicated planet, apparently, with loads of moons, but he didn’t care. It would be a fun project especially if he was able to listen to a familiar accent.
Cepheus turned to the people closest to him. It was clear from his bright blue eyes that he already had in mind what he wanted to do. “Would you like to be in a group together?” he asked. “I suggest we summarise Jupiter. It’s the biggest.” He gave a little smirk when he finished, but it faltered. “To be honest, I don’t know quite that much about it or any of the planets, really, but I can look it up.” He wasn’t completely useless. He flipped through his textbook and found the page describing Jupiter. “All right, do you want to write this all down? I can read it out loud.”
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Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus
Drops of Jupiter.
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Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus
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Theresa Carey, Pecari
September 23, 2012 5:12 PM
Those sound potentially hazardous by Theresa Carey, Pecari
When the time had come to choose their new classes, Theresa had signed up for Astronomy and Divination without even thinking too much about it. She was a Carey, so staying with the smallest acceptable number of classes wasn’t really an option, and Muggle Studies was even less of one, not that she wanted the extra work. She knew Arthur was really disappointed about how there was a class they weren’t allowed to take, but that was just him being an Aladren – she thought, anyway, and hoped. One girl was one thing, men were just like that, but she couldn’t imagine the shame if her cousin, the heir’s own brother, became enamored of the entire concept and decided to break his wand and go join the Muggles. Such freaks were rare, she knew, but she had heard whispered rumors about them existing all her life, and she thought the family would sooner see one of them dead than like that.Astronomy, though, was a nice, safe subject – a little masculine in some of its sub-areas, but there was nothing inherently wrong with taking it. There was no chance, that she could see, that anything would happen in Astronomy that could cause a scandal. That was cold comfort as she entered a classroom she didn’t technically have to be in, but it was something.
She took her moment to be impressed by the magic used to decorate the room – she might have to remember that and recreate it someday, at least in part, for a party – and then settled in to see what the new professor had in store for them. He was new to the school, as she was new to the subject, so she expected the class to be of about average difficulty for her. That was nothing to celebrate about – she envied Anthony and Arthur for many reasons, but the way they seemed to be able to do almost anything involving a book with no effort at all was high on the list – but it was nothing to be afraid of, either, so she felt very neutral as the rest of the class finished filling in, only shifting a moment over into a half-pleased, half-fluttery feeling when one of the two people she had spent too much of this term looking at sat down near her.
Theresa raised one eyebrow slightly when the professor decided to point out that he was English – obviously he was, why would he bother to fake that accent? Unless he was a Muggleborn trying to pass himself off as something more, anyway, and if he was, then why would he draw more attention to his background than was strictly necessary? – but then didn’t have time to react to anything that he said, since she was kept very busy writing as much of it down as she could, missing things in lists and knowing she had but not being able to remember what they were. Near the end, she did get in a moment of confusion about why he would have to specifically say that he thought Pluto was a planet, but then they had to find groups and Cepheus actually spoke to her and she promptly forgot all about the remark.
“Of course,” she said when he finished talking, even though she would rather he had written and she had read. Her tutors had done their best, but her handwriting was still not as elegant as she might have liked. Clear, yes, but composed of tall letters made of thin, sharp lines. She had never liked her handwriting at all. Tackling the largest planet would have sounded far more appealing if she hadn't been doing the writing; she enjoyed a challenge, but had just seen how she wasn't perfect at writing fast while staying neat and getting all the details down. “Just say when," she added, her quill at the ready.
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Theresa Carey, Pecari
Those sound potentially hazardous
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Theresa Carey, Pecari
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Cepheus
September 25, 2012 12:12 PM
It'd be like intense acid rain. by Cepheus
Cepheus felt only slightly self-conscious with Theresa as his partner. Ever since the summer where they had gotten to know each other a little better, he hadn't thought too much of their interaction, having had unwanted information thrown at him till the very end. He hadn't even thought much of her coming back to school, being obsessed with avoiding his betrothed. But now that she was here in this classroom as his partner, it was difficult not to realise that something was a little...different with her. He wasn't exactly sure what it was, but he thought he'd better not dwell on the thought too much. It was making him feel uncomfortable.He cleared his throat before beginning, wanting his not-so masculine voice to be deeper. It wasn't fair that he was the scrawniest of his friends though he was getting slightly taller and was still sounding like a nine year old boy. Dorian's voice had already changed, lucky lad. Cepheus couldn't wait to start sounding more like a man and less like, well, himself. Nevertheless, Cepheus tried not to think about it as he read the information out loud.
" 'Jupiter was named after the king of the Roman gods,'" he began. " 'It is the largest planet in the solar system, rotates faster than the others and produces the most powerful magnetic field. Jupiter has an oval storm system called the Great Red Spot' which is really a giant wind storm. 'It is 778,412,020 kilometers away from the sun, 318 times the earth's mass, has a diameter of 142,984 km, and has sixty-two known moons.' Wow. That's a lot." He took his eyes off of his book to meet Theresa's eyes briefly, his eyebrows raised in surprise. There was a lot he didn't know about the universe despite the fact that he was named after a constellation. He had no clue what the Cepheus constellation even looked like.
He turned back to the textbook and began to scan the text, wondering what they could do without. He didn't want to read the entire chapter and have Theresa in essence rewrite it all. "You think we could do without information about the surface gravity? I don't think it would matter much in the summary because no one's going to attempt a trip there any time soon with the Red Spot going on." He turned the page, uninterested now that they were nearly done.
"Length of year, length of day...do you think these are important to include?" Cepheus wasn't a fan of numbers. He enjoyed arithmatic to an extent, but he was the kind of lad that enjoyed reading fiction novels and brewing potions, not sitting in a classroom reading about planets or thinking about numbers. If they were researching constellations, perhaps that would garner more of an interest. He would love to tell Theresa all about what he considered his constellation.
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Cepheus
It'd be like intense acid rain.
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Cepheus
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Theresa
September 30, 2012 8:32 PM
I really don't think we need any of that by Theresa
Theresa wrote as quickly as she could, but had gotten through no more than the first fact before she realized she was going to have to use a lot of abbreviations to keep up at all, and even then, she knew she still forgot at least one thing Cepheus said before she could get it down on the sheet she had in front of her. She was already flushed, annoyed about that, when Cepheus made eye contact, so that didn’t make much of a difference to her expression. It was really a pity that he was taken; she was going to have to do something horrible to that Whateverhernamewas girl. Maybe she could pin it on Kitty McLevy and eliminate both something that threatened to disgrace Arthur and to keep her from successfully setting herself up, if she decided to go through with that plan, to get Laurie Stratford at the same time.“It is,” she said, taking her mind away from attraction and marriage and to Jupiter. “I think I got most of it, though.” Honesty forced her to tack on, “Sort of.” She looked down at the paper in her lap, which she was sure would be completely incomprehensible to anyone but her. “I think we’ll have to rewrite it anyway,” she admitted regretfully. “I abbreviated everything, so I don’t think Professor O’Rourke will be able to read it.”
Though she wasn’t completely sure he planned to really read these documents at all, since he had to already know all about the planets to be an Astronomy professor and she was sure that his mind would go numb at some time during the grading process. That didn’t seem like a very proper thing to say, though, especially not in front of a boy she wanted to think she was ladylike and desirable as a companion. She was supposed to act as though everyone had only the purest of motives, at least unless Cepheus showed signs of not minding – or better yet, liking – that she was brighter than an extinguished candle.
“I think we can probably do without that,” she agreed about the surface gravity. “How on earth would they even know that, anyway?” No one could fly to another planet. Brooms did not work that way. There was no way to get to another planet, because they were too far away, and from what she had gathered, even if you did get there, then you’d die because the new planet would kill you. “Though, I guess that goes for most of this…really advanced spells, I guess.”
Now she was flushing all over again, feeling like an idiot for not realizing that to begin with. Of course it was really advanced spells, and if she was too dim to figure it out right away, then she should just keep her mouth shut even when the right answer occurred to her, because it sounded better than tripping over her own feet like that. He probably thought she was a complete moron. There was nothing to do, though, but just keep going and hope that he hadn’t thought too much about it. Never did she think she’d be happier with the assumption that girls were a little dim, or something like that.
“I’d think so,” she said, biting the inside of her mouth for a second before she caught herself, when he asked about length of year and length of day. “Since that determines where it is, doesn’t it, and that’s what it’s important for us to know?” Or she was assuming it was as she made it up right now. It sounded right, though.
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Theresa
I really don't think we need any of that
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Theresa
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Cepheus
October 02, 2012 2:37 PM
Probably not. Regular rain does fine. by Cepheus
It was surprising to Cepheus how much has gotten down. Granted, it was difficult for him to read, but he didn't think the abbreviations were terribly difficult. "I could rewrite it for you, if you'd like," he offered. If he was being completely honest with himself, his handwriting was a little neater than hers. Of course, if he'd had to rush to jot down every word she had read out of a textbook, his handwriting would have been nearly unreadable as well.Theresa posed a good question when she asked how they would know about the surface gravity. And then she answered her own question: advanced spells. It was simple, but Cepheus never would have bothered to think twice about it. He wasn't ever going to go to the moon or Jupiter and so it didn't matter to him what the surface gravity was or how to get there. All that he really had to know were the constellations and the positions of the stars and planets, most likely. Constellations were a must since his family named the heirs after them.
Cepheus didn't respond to her question about getting to a different planet, but let her continue to comment on what they should include. "I suppose so," he said, shrugging. "It doesn't matter much to me, if you don't mind writing it down." He gave her a little smile before looking back down at the textbook. He skimmed a bit of the part he was planning to read aloud, then looked up again. "Ready?"
Once Theresa indicated that she was, he began reading again. "There's 9 hours and 56 minutes in the day, and a year in Jupiter is 11.9 years on Earth. You should probably write down that it's an outer planet, whatever that means." He looked at the rest of it, and then sighed and put the textbook down flat again. "Well, I think that's all we really need." He leant back in his chair. "I wish we could study the constellations or the stars. Planets are grand and all, but I'd like to learn how to chart them instead of research useless information about them. Well, not useless, just...irrelevant to our lives." 'Irrelevant' wasn't the right word either, but Cepheus couldn't think properly.
Now that their work was mostly done, he tried to think of something to talk about. There was loads of things he could think of, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to pursue certain topics with her. He had tried to keep his betrothal to Megan a secret, but he was sure it had still gotten out. If there was something he had learnt over the years, it was that the bigger the secret, the more likely it was to get out, at least among the pure-blood community. Still, he wanted to avoid the topic of marriage for as long as possible.
"How was the rest of your summer?" he asked, finally looking over at her. "After the wedding, I mean."
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Cepheus
Probably not. Regular rain does fine.
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Cepheus
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Theresa
October 06, 2012 11:20 PM
I agree by Theresa
“That might be for the best,” Theresa said, trying not to blush over her penmanship. She had known from the start that it wasn’t the best; that was why she hadn’t really wanted to be the one to write at all. Still, he hadn’t known that, as she generally didn’t show other people her handwriting, so she didn’t blame him for it…much. If she’d really cared – or, she thought dryly, been thinking less of being demure and agreeable – she would have said something before he ever started reading aloud. “Just ask if you can’t figure out, um, what something’s supposed to be. With the shortenings,” she had to add, to make it slightly less about her penmanship.“I don’t mind,” she said, still wanting to seem agreeable and getting a little annoyed at herself for feeling that way, and then nodded when he got ready to start reading again. “When you are,” she said.
She envied her cousins. Arthur didn’t seem to be very affected by human emotions of any kind, and even Arnold still mostly seemed to be himself even though he was betrothed. If she were – to anyone, but particularly to someone she liked, as she assumed Arnold liked Fae, since he had always spent so much time around her – she didn’t think she’d be able to think about anything else, and that it would show. Though even that would be better than blushing and being flustered over a boy who she’d danced with a few times and had no other ties to. At least that made sense, and at worst would get her teased. This could just make people think she was an idiot.
Theresa wrote down the remaining information. “Mmhm,” she said about this not being the most fascinating thing to learn. “My father showed us where some of the constellations were when I was little,” she remarked, “but nothing really about them, or where they…I don’t know, move, or whatever it is they do.” She added a smile to hopefully distract from how unintelligent that statement sounded.
It was easier to smile when he confirmed that he did remember that they’d both been at that wedding. Of course he would – it was kind of stupid, she knew, to think otherwise – but still, that was the kind of stupid thought she had when this all came up. “That was the most exciting part of it, really,” she said. "It was just brushing up on French lessons and putting up with my brothers after that." And sisters, though she spent less time with Diana than with the boys and Cecilia was still little enough to be more of a responsibility than anything. "My second one came with us this time, he's in Crotalus now. What about yours?" She realized she'd skipped something important. "And how was the rest of your summer?"
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Theresa
I agree
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Theresa
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Cepheus
October 13, 2012 11:27 PM
Did it just get hot in here? by Cepheus
Cepheus was glad that he had decided to rewrite their report because Theresa's scribbles were not going to earn them points with the professor. It was all right. Now he knew something else about her. "I'll take it," he said, taking the sheet from her when she was finished in order to begin rewriting it. Her shorthand was a bit difficult to read, but he was could read most of it and would most likely figure out the rest.It was clear that Theresa wasn't as enthusiastic about the constellations as Cepheus was, but that was understandable. She hadn't grown up with name like his with the responsibility of choosing the name of a proper constellation for his son one day. Thinking about having any descendants at all made Cepheus feel a bit ill. Theresa's little smile after she spoke made Cepheus's insides warm a bit, but he didn't realise what exactly was going on. The room was probably getting warmer or something. Living in Arizona's heat was awful.
Theresa's summer didn't sound drastically different from Cepheus's, except Ceph had had to live in France with his frightful cousin and sneak around with his other cousin, the one that his father had warned him against. He decided to answer Theresa's second question first, assuming that the "Henry Carey" that had recently joined Crotalus was her younger brother. Knowing that would make it slightly easier to tolerate the young Carey, though it wouldn't help much. "My summer was awful," sighed Cepheus. "I had to live in Paris, which wouldn't have been horrible except I had to live with my frightful cousin, Devon. He's an only child and is spoiled to the absolute core." He had been tempted to use a curse word, but cursing in front of ladies was so wrong.
"Besides that, we had the family reunion at the Princeton estate again, where I live, and that was stifling. I was glad it only lasted a few hours." Once, the reunion had gone on for a couple days with all the guest rooms filled up. It had been bloody ridiculous and Cepheus had hated that. He had been able to escape with his friends then, however, and now he couldn't. "My younger brother's here too, but he's in Pecari. I'm glad he's not in Crotalus." He turned to Theresa. "That's what house you're in, isn't it?" He knew that he knew, but he wanted to be certain. One could never be too safe. "How do you like it? I hope my brother's not a fright."
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Cepheus
Did it just get hot in here?
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Cepheus
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