Hogwarts Institute of Magic
Magic with Power
Astronomy Lesson 3 Year 1 : Introduction to Astronomical Tools
Welcome back to another lesson of Astronomy, and I'm sure you all are excited to learn about astronomical tools. So, first we shall begin with the basic tools.
Telescope
The first tool there is the Telescope. It magnifies a small celestial object in the sky, and shows it clearly and more brightly to examine the celestial objects.
Planets such as Pluto and Uranus were discovered using Telescopes. However, muggles being first in inventing the telescope, wizards and witches put some more effort, and they having the prowess at magic, they made the telescopes more advanced. A muggle telescope includes the Hubble Telescope invented by Edwin Hubble, while a magical telescope includes the Copernicus Vision Model by Nicholas Copernicus is the magical version.
View here.
I see many of the muggle borns' faces surprised, but no, Copernicus is only a muggle to the muggles, actually it's we who know his real efforts behind magic.
Nicholas Copernicus was born on 19 February, in Poland, 1473 and lived in the Renaissance period. He attended Hogwarts in the year 1484 and was sorted into Hufflepuff. He showed his interest in astronomy class, perhaps a lot, and was a prefect for Astronomy from his very second year of Hogwarts. He passed with flying colors at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
His telescope had basic features, such as showing the albedo, angular sizes, and more features. There were colorful buttons to indicate each. "A" represented Albedo, and it showed the Albedo of the telescope. The letter "AS" in the yellow color represents angular size.
To find out, you just need to place your telescope pointer on the moon or any other planet to check it, and you're done.
The telescope weighed very lightly, which is useful for students like you, and that's why you do use it.
Please don't mess with your telescope that you use, as the telescopes' ends are made out of glasses, so please don't break it, and at all times, please put your telescope cap on the glass.
The light of the powerful full moon and the sun is as powerful as a dark spell, which could take away all the magical properties of the telescope, so please do not expose them directly, and at all times, keep the cap on the glass.
The next lesson, you will be learning more about the telescope.
Star Charts
Now we come over to the Star Charts. There are magical and non-magical star charts, both. Magical Star Charts show starts moving in them, with the live position, while muggle star charts are for different months altogether, and do not get updated each day, and the information provided is very limited, and sometimes inaccurate. View here.
Land Rovers
Rovers are robotic machines sent by space agencies on planets such as Mars to explore the planets, sometimes held by astronauts. Many space agencies such as NASA sent five Land Rovers to Mars, namely Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance. They found out firstly that Mars is an icy cold planet covered with dirt and dust of red color.
With data from the rovers, mission scientists have reconstructed an ancient past when Mars was awash in water. Spirit and Opportunity each found evidence for past wet conditions that possibly could have supported microbial life.
Check out here for an image.
Lunascope/Moon Charts
Now, let me tell you what Lunascopes/Moon Charts are used for. Luna Scopes are mainly used to see the phases of the moon magically. You just need to own one, and swipe left to view the previous month's and to view ahead, just swipe to the right on the screen in the Lunascope. A Lunascope is mainly used to determine the best day for gazing at the moon, or to gain knowledge about the phases of the moon. Check out here for the image of Lunascope. Moon Charts are a muggle substitute for the magical Lunascope. They are for a week altogether, and can be viewed on a piece of paper.
Space Shuttles
The system of Space Shuttles, who are artificial satellites, used to launch other satellites was started by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the year 1981 and was popular till 2011, but then they stopped using it due to two accidents, which killed fourteen astronauts, and since then they relied on the Russian spacecraft Soyuz.
It had a total of 135 flights, and its first flight being on April 12, 1981 and the last flight being on July 21, 2011. They were Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour. If you are curious to learn more about Space Shuttles, here is the link.
Satellites
A satellite is mainly a planet, the moon or a machine that monitors(orbits) a planet or a star. Moon is Earth's natural satellite, while Earth has many other artificial satellites, which are man made and they have different names for them. See here for the image. They help scientists understand more about particular spaces. Shall you want to learn more, go here for the link.
Orrery
An Orrery comes in both magical and non magical versions. In the muggle version of the Orrery, the planets are not upto scale, or we would have required a very big Orrery to show each and every planet.
In the muggle one, planets are attached to a metal rod, and are set to move by technology, while in the magical version, they float in the air, by charms.
Now, for today, this is enough. Meet you next time. Class concluded.