alt_sinistra: (at ease)
I’m still feeling rather inspired after last night - the chance to talk to my astronomical peers about a topic near and dear my heart does give a lift. Georg: thanks again for the opportunity, it was delightful, and I appreciate your attention in all the planning. Everyone else: I’ll do my best to make it in April, you’re all right it’d been entirely too long.

I’m particularly intrigued by some upcoming projects, especially one that promises substantial refinements in the astronomy involved in locational magic (such as used in the floo network) and another focusing on the mysteries of star creation. (For older students: several projects are offering summer internships and not all of them require NEWT level work in astronomy. Stop by for details.)

I also got several useful references for my own research, and I’m quite excited to dig into that, now we’ve gotten back into the rhythm of the school term. It seems that errors crept into previous detailed work on stars in Ursa Major. My end goal is deeper study on the origins of those stars, but clearly a corrected survey must happen first.

To my NEWT students and the YPL counsellors:
What a lovely thing just after lunch! Thank you for such a thoughtful present and I especially treasure the notes. (And thank you, for not just leaving it for me: so much more fun to see your faces.) 6th years, now I know why you all couldn’t stop grinning this morning!

Office hours this week
As I was out last night, I expect to be in my office between dinner and curfew tonight (and tomorrow, and Friday) for anyone with questions about your first assignments of the new term (or your exams, if your marks are still mysterious.) Next week, I’ll settle into the schedule we’ve discussed in class.

One last note:
Would the following please stop by my office during any of my office hours, sooner rather than later? You’re not in trouble, I promise. (Diggory and O’Flaherty, same matter I mentioned Sunday).
3rd years: Bradley, Clarriker, Inglebee, Lovegood, Sandoval, Stevens, Zimmerman
4th years: Brocklehurst, Bones, Bundy, Hopkins, Jones, Longbottom, Macmillan, Moon, Parkinson, Perks, Weasley
5th years: Begy, Bobolis, Cadwallader, Coote, Dunstan, Gamp, Jones, Robins, Sloper
alt_sinistra: (in charge)
Back to classes, after some lovely holidays. We’re currently in that glorious week or so where I’m entirely caught up on all my marking and correspondence, I’ve had plenty of time for research on the tower, and quite my share of social outings and other enjoyments. Never does last more than a week or two, but that’s all to the good, really, as it means there’s something new to look forward to.

CCF, YPL, and guests:
It is time to turn our attention to our next outing, on January 28th. The event will be an all-day outdoor strategy event held off Hogwarts grounds, with three teams, each lead by a group of our CCF students (for whom the event is mandatory).

For all who wish to attend there will be a required planning meeting on January 21st at 2pm. The day of, we will depart at 9am, and return around 4pm. CCF students will be expected to attend a post-event debriefing following our return, finishing by dinner time.

We welcome:
- Our guests, as team participants.
- Third year and non-CCF fourth year students as team participants.
- A limited number of first and second year students to assist with various tasks.

Due to logistics, we have a more limited number of places for this event than our usual. Everyone participating should be comfortable with extended outdoor exposure and exertion, skilled with at least one long-duration warming charm, and be willing to work together in assigned teams to reach a mutual goal. Previous active participation in YPL events and recent behaviour will be used to determine attendees if we have more interest than places.

If you wish to be considered, please sign up on the board outside my office no later by 8am on Sunday.

On another note:
I’ve also been thinking about my past year. I’ve never particularly subscribed to resolutions, as much as goals, but I am quite pleased with the ongoing growth of the YPL and CCF programmes, the completion of the chart projection charm project (and related publication), and the usual progress in teaching and learning that happen all the time in my classroom.

This coming year, I’m looking forward to a new research project (made possible by a shiny new telescope) and continuing the work of the past few years in a variety of areas.
alt_sinistra: woman looking down, away from the camera, hair in her face. (did I mention I'm busy?)
..how amazingly chaotic this time of year is? And of course, it’s much more this year, both due to the Ball and various other commitments. I can see the end of the worst of it in sight, though I do need to catch up on some marking.

I think I’ve finally sorted out my holiday invitations, though I’ve had to decline quite a few due to other commitments. (Now I’m getting the post-holiday ones, including the next Astronomer’s Guild quarterly meeting. Georg: delighted, thanks, details to follow in a day or two.)

I am also very glad I got my holiday gifts arranged early, given the way the past few weeks have gone. Now to get a variety of necessary notes out.

A new tool

Oct. 27th, 2011 12:00 pm
alt_sinistra: black and white image of woman with short blond hair looking out of the image. (Default)
Students: I’m delighted to announce a new resource.

As some of you know (particularly my N.E.W.T students who’ve been giving me feedback on some samples), I’ve been working for the past two and a half years on a way to project a portion of the night sky and hold it for study and teaching (steadily, without ongoing need for concentration). I’m delighted to say I’ve reached a point where I believe the work is ready for regular classroom use.

Now, this does not replace our observation time (since you will still need to learn how to use your own telescopes and make your own observations). And, of course, no matter how good or how detailed my created images of the night sky are, they do not contain everything: only what I myself knew at the time I made the image. (And thus, it does not include ongoing or emerging stellar events, comets or meteors, or other things of that kind.)

However, I do think it will be an excellent resource in a number of situtations:
- to illustrate a point in class, so you can make more effective use of your observation time.
- to ilustrate more clearly things that cannot readily be seen with student telescopes.
- to make it easier to study or review before tests (both my own exams, and for O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. exams).

And of course, it will give us some additional options on cloudy nights without completely losing class time.

This option has limits: it takes me at least half an hour to link a combination of charms and create an image for each area, and it can be much longer for a more complicated or detailed piece of the sky. I plan to add another couple each week, until we have a well-stocked library of examples (focusing first on materials of use for O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. students, and then moving on to items covered regularly in the rest of the curriculum.)

Projections can be checked out by permission during hours I’m in my office, and an updated list of projections will be posted by my door each week. My classroom is available for their use, and I’ve also had the house-elves clean out a space on the floor directly below, as the projections are best viewed without distracting items behind them. (You’ll notice a large white sheet hung in a corner of my classroom for this purpose as well.)

If anyone is interested in the theory behind the project, I have an article in the next issue of the Journal of Modern Magical Theory and Experiment that explains some of the details, and I’d be glad to share my copy of the submitted version. Just stop by my office!
alt_sinistra: black and white image of woman with short blond hair looking out of the image. (Default)
Goodness - I suddenly realised it had been an age since I'd written here, though not because I've been idle.

Of course, students all know about the upcoming schedule for YPL meetings. (And I must say, I'm quite looking forward to today's meeting myself: our presenters are quite enthusiastic and promise a number of fascinating stories and examples for us.)

The weather, however, is what has been taking much of my time. Every winter I've been here, there's been a certain amount of frustration dealing with observation time, but this fall's weather has been worse, and worse earlier, than other years. Obviously, this puts a huge crimp in my teaching plans, so I've been devoting most of my time to seeing if I can arrange an alternative.

In specific, I've been experimenting with what it would take to project a map of the sky onto an appropriate surface (ideally, a light-colored curved roof, based on my experiments so far). There's quite a lot of incentive, as besides solving the weather issue, it might allow us to examine views of the stars that we cannot see here - either due to the time, or due to our location.

Regrettably, the solutions I've found so far require quite a lot of attention to maintain, as well as requiring the person creating the image to have an extremely detailed knowledge of what should be present, which makes them incompatible with teaching. (Though, if I can work out a few details, it's possible that one of the seventh years might, for example, hold a projection for our first or second years while I discuss it.)

Madam Pince has been most helpful, and I've been asking a few questions of others working in similar areas - but until then, I'm afraid we're left with our wall maps and the occasional patch of starlight when it falls on a class observation day.

Poppy - sorry to neglect our tea recently. Are you free on Monday? If so, I think I'm at an impasse with the current round of research, and won't get new sources to explore for at least a week.

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alt_sinistra: black and white image of woman with short blond hair looking out of the image. (Default)
Aurora Sinistra

September 2015

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