Professor McFarlan
September 30, 2007 4:14 PM
Fifth Years Class by Professor McFarlan
Students at Sonora represented countries from all over the world. And only the Goddess knew where their lives would take them once they graduated. Even those who were born and would live and die in the States needed to remember the world was a much bigger place than the North American Continent. Professor McFarlan could just hear some of the grumbling now. Why are we studying this when we’re never going to use it in real life? Of course, there were those who struggled with the last assignment as they were grew up with completely different star patterns.The professor touched the crystal and whispered the incantation to change the star field. The desks and grassy plain was still there, left from the class before. Moving the chairs in a circle and transforming them back into recliners, she nodded. It was more difficult to study and take notes in such chairs, but it made star gazing infinitely more comfortable. She looked up at the “sky”. Even though she was as intimately familiar with its constellations as the ones she saw every evening from her window, it never failed to disorient her a bit to see such an unfamiliar night sky.
She greeted the returning class enthusiastically. As exhausted as she was at the end of last term, she missed her students terribly over the summer. Her farm seems like a haven at first, but very lonely by the end of break. She came back much earlier than expected just because she needed to be around people again.
“Welcome back,” McFarlan address the class. “I hope you’ve notice a bit of a change since the last time you were here. This is a replica of the Southern Hemisphere. People who live north of the Equator never get to see the sky looking like this. There are stars and constellations unique to each hemisphere. We share some constellations, but they appear in different areas of our skies. Please see if you can spot a one or two and note the apparent change in position.
“There is no bright polar star in the Southern Hemisphere. While, the Southern Cross, or Crux isn’t exactly at Polar South, it serves the purpose for those who get their directions from the stars. In order to see Crux in the real sky, you must live south of the 30 degrees latitude. Its brightest star is Acrux. It is a blue white sub-giant and is about one hundred time brighter than our sun.
“Today, I would like you to chart and label the three circumpolar constellations. On a separate parchment, list the other two constellations besides Crux. I also would like you to tell me why Centarus is a special favorite of Astronomers everywhere and what is one of the name origin legends of Carina. You may work together in small groups or independently. If you work in groups, remember, I want individual papers from each of you, no word for word copies.”
OOC: Two paragraphs at least, please. Have Fun!
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Subthreads: I'm so many kinds of in trouble. by Catherine Raines
feeling upside down. by Dalila Bastet
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Professor McFarlan
Fifth Years Class
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Professor McFarlan
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Catherine Raines
October 02, 2007 10:31 PM
I'm so many kinds of in trouble. by Catherine Raines
Catherine eyed her chosen recliner with something more than the usual distaste before sitting down in it, looking up at the starry ceiling to avoid looking at the other fifth-year students. It bore no resemblance to the more hated piece of furniture, but she was still forcibly reminded of the seats in Michaelson's office. It was probably the fact that Lila, who still had style if not standards, wouldn't have allowed either of them in the house. Without looking away from what looked to her like so much chaos, Catherine wondered darkly what her therapist would say if present. Probably that I need to check into the Tillie.She ran both hands through her thick brown hair, uncharmed and so hanging in its natural weak waves, in an attempt to improve upon nature. Giving up on that - it was a long way from her first attempt of the morning - she smoothed out a wrinkle in her plainest skirt. It might have been a little funnier if she hadn't wondered several times over the past few days if she did belong in the St. John's mental unit.
The conversation in the dorms still felt surreal to think about. She and her friends never broke down and confessed their problems. They didn't lose their status or anything associated with it. They sure as hell didn't turn against their families. They were three beautiful, aloof boarding school goddesses, not the people they had morphed into in less than fifteen minutes. Catherine couldn't look in the mirror anymore without thinking crazy things, and looking at her hair and clothes, as simple as she could make them for her friends' sake, was so bizarre she had to bite her tongue to keep from offering to share her own clothes.
Even worse was the unshakable idea that it wasn't working - that she was still too rich, socially secure, and generally like they had all been for them to put up with her for much longer. She did her best not to think about it, but anxiety was rapidly becoming a regular aspect of her life. She kept it covered up, the way she always had. She didn't know what else to do.
Catherine kept her face carefully blank when the professor welcomed them back and immediately told her she would fail her CATS in spectacular fashion. That was how she took the hope that they'd noticed something different about how the ceiling looked, anyway, because she hadn't. Try as hard as she would - or, more often than not, wouldn't - she hadn't been able to pick out anything but the Big Dipper from the North American sky, and she couldn't even find that in the new one. The shapes were all too abstract for her brain to pick out without a book open right beside her. She avoided looking at anyone for a few moments.
She wondered - and almost asked - how anyone managed to get any sleep in the Southern Hemisphere if the Acrux was a lot brighter than the sun, but decided it wasn't worth sounding stupid. She just copied down the facts they were given and, with dubious spelling, the assignment. Turning to the right section of the book didn't help; the star chart just seemed to swim worse on the page every time she tried to find what she needed. Stupid book, stupid Astronomy, stupid McFarlan, stupid CATS, stupid, stupid complicated life -
Looking up abruptly, she closed her eyes hard and took a deep breath. Everything was going to be okay. She turned towards the next recliner, painfully aware of how unlike herself she felt without her usual "supplements". "Would you like to work together?" she asked.
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Catherine Raines
I'm so many kinds of in trouble.
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Catherine Raines
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Dalila Bastet
October 22, 2007 4:10 AM
feeling upside down. by Dalila Bastet
Dalila walked into astronomy class with her neck craned so that she was looking directly up. Astronomy was alway the best class to be in. The crystal thing McFarlan had that made the classroom turn into the sky was absolutely amazing. Much better than posters or animals...though animals were cool in their own right, they just didn't seem to impress the way the sky can.She finally turned her head back to its normal position and chose a recliner to spend class in. It was then that she noticed that the sky looked different somehow. She tried to find some familiar constellations and couldn't see any. Well, there something towards the 'horizon' that might have been Hercules. Were they perhaps looking at the sky from a different planet? The thought intrigued her to no end.
Dalila continued to stare at the strange sky while everyone file in and took their seats. When Professor McFarlan started, Dalila let out a small 'oh' of understanding. They were looking at the southern hemisphere. That seemed a lot more logical than looking at the sky from another planet. And their assignment, once McFarlan told them, sounded a lot more interesting than the usual 'chart the summer sky' stuff that they usually did. There were stories to find out about.
Grabbing her book, Dalila flipped through the pages until she came across the chapter on the southern hemisphere. She quickly found the other two circumpolar constellations mentioned and began to chart them out. After a few unsatisfying attempts, she managed a good chart. She grinned proudly and moved on to the next part. It was a lot of writing. Maybe she should work with someone else on this.
Dalila took her quill and began poking the person in front of her with the feathery end of it until they turned around.
"Hey, you wanna work on the Centarus and Carina thing with me?"
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Dalila Bastet
feeling upside down.
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Dalila Bastet
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