Stargazing- Ickle Firsties

Axel looked around the astronomy tower, wandering slowly over to one of the large windows. He leaned against the bannister, looking out over the massive castle and feeling the wind rustle his hair. The boy set his bag down next to him, hoping that he had just a few more moments to be alone up here.

Colin walked into the classroom, giving the students a kind smile and a nod.

"Well, we seem to be a short a few of our other classmates. I suppose we'll give them a few more moments, hopefully none of them got too lost."

"I'm Professor O'Brian. I am head of Hufflepuff as well as the Professor of this class. I'm always open to help should one go searching for it."

"Now, what interest do you have in Astronomy?"

"Well, I grew up in-" Axel paused, realizing that one windowless room that was basically a glorified prison cell probably wouldn't be very appropriate. "I grew up in the city." That was a thing, right? He was fairly certain that he'd read about stars being harder to see there, because of light pollution or something.

"So I never got to see the stars. I only ever read about them." He nodded to himself, satisfied with the answer that he gave and that he only had to half-lie. After all, the compound was supposedly near a city, so what he had said was rather true.

Alena made her way to the Astronomy tower, walking a bit more faster than she normally did. She entered the classroom and noticed the Professor was already here. She held her books tightly and frowned a bit. She was never late. "I apologise for my Tardiness Professor, It won't happen again." She said to the man.

Alena looked around and smiled at the only student she went over to sit next to him. "You don't mind do you if I sit next to you?" She said as she placed her things ont he table. "Anyway to late," She said with a small laugh. She looked at the Professor and smiled.

Colin nodded his head softly, "Well there is always a perfect time to start.

"It is quite alright, we were waiting for you to begin. However, now that you have seen the way, I certainly hope you will do well to try and remember it and be here sooner next time."

"To being, astronomy is one of the oldest crafts the world knows. Anyone feel like hazarding a guess on when it first orginiated?"

Alena put her hand up, and started to speak her answer. " Astronomy started around 150 A.D. Ptolemy, an Alexandrian astronomer, invented the concentric system to explain the motions of the planets around the earth. His work was the accepted authority on astronomy until 1543." Alena said with a pause, continuing on.

"The modern history of astronomy starts in Europe in about 1300 AD, though." Alena said as he second answer. Smiling at the professor.

Colin nodded his head at the girls answer, "Very true, that is both when the modern idea of Astronomy started - when observations started to be written down, and taken seriously as what we constier "Science" however astronomy is a much, much older craft then that."

"No one knows when Astronomy, or the fascination with the sky first started, but even the ancients, people older the Ptolemy were looking at the stars for many things."

Colin smiled slightly, "It seems to be part of human nature to be captured by the mystery of the sky."

"The history of Astronomy however, is something we will look at more in depth next class. Today I wish to focus on the tools of the craft, and any other important basics. Can anyone name me any tools?"

Axel opened his mouth to say something to the girl, but she sat down anyway, and he closed his mouth, looking back down at his desk.

He looked back up at the girl, gaping. Was he supposed to know all of this, too? He shook his head and looked up at the professor, his eyes brightening a little as he heard a question he actually knew the answer to. "Well, you can use astrolabes, starcharts, and telescopes," he said, a small smile on his face.

Colin beamed as the young student came up with more answers than just the obvious telescope.

"Thank you Mr. Volkov," he said, his face emitting a kind smile towards the child, "Yes, those are all tools of the trade."

"Now, each of those have their own uses of course. Lets start off with what will likely be the telescope. What does anyone know about this device? Anything?"

Colin paused for a moment, then looked at the clock, "Oh, we appear to be out of time today. Well, we'll continue this later - have a pleasent evening children."

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