Astronomy ~ 1st Years

Miles walked up to the Astronomy tower with his textbook and notepad, he enjoyed the first lesson in this subject but knew the Professor would want to get down to business in this lesson. He finally made his way to the top of the tower and and took a seat

Miles looked around the room seeing a few other desks, he had hoped that perhaps some more first years had decided to take Astronomy, but knew that probably wasn't likely, then then strummed his fingers on the desk waiting for the class to start

Colin strolled into his classroom slowly. Unsurprised to see only one student in there. It wasn't very different even as the years went on. The children simple did not seem to be interested in looking at the stars.

It was an art that was only truly understood and valued by a few, not the many.

"Evening Mr. Bloxam," he spoke in his soft voice. "I trust you had a good break."

"So, how old, Mr. Bloxam, do you think Astronomy is? As an art? A Science, whatever you wish to call it?"

Miles looked around as Professor O'Brian entered the classrom he nodded at his question of did he have a good break, Miles had decided to stay here over the break considering he wanted to get a good handle of his History of Magic work for this term

Miles bite his bottom lip at the Professors question " Ah... I guess people didn't really think about the stars as a science until around... urrgh just taking a guess here, so maybe around 1700's, so that means Astronomy would be about 312 year old?" Miles said a little bit unsure in his answer

Colin nodded his head, "Well yes, and no - that would be a good guess while taking my words a little more literally than I had intended them to be. Yes, "Science" as it was known would have looked at the stars in around the 1700s - Slytrhing can have five points for a decent guess."

"What I want to talk about however, is the really ancient stuff. Astronomy and the stars have been the center of many arts for millenium, long before our current time. The ancient Greeks, Romans, Eygptians and even civilizations older than that have evidence of some form of star gazing and reading."

"Now, Mr. Bloxam, do you have any idea what they might have been doing with the information they gathered? What were they using the stars for?"

Miles was surprized when Professor O'Brian awarded 5 points to Slytherin, this would have to be the first time he had ever received points for his house, he was quite excited, but he quickly re-focused when the Professor asked him another question

"Well I guess they would have used it like astrology to help them predict future events, also they might have used it for agricultural purposes, like when the best time of year was to plant" Miles said, a little more confident this time, he was begining to really like this subject, it was the one class he felt he actually knew something

Colin inclinde his head and smiled.

"All very good answers Mr. Bloxom." Colin walked around and sat in his desk chair. "For the remainder of this evening, I'd like you to pick one of those reasons and research on just how it might have been used. I look forward to seeing you're paper at the end of next class."

Miles nodded at the Professor, he then opened his textbook and began flipping through the pages looking for a section on agriculture, he figured he would have to pay a vist to the library becuase the textbook had limited information on the topic

Miles quickly jolted down a few notes from the textbook, he was so excited his first assignment in this subject and he felt good that he wouldn't be compared to others seeming he was the only one in the class