I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

If you get the chance, take a look at the western horizon after sunset the next night or two. Mars, Saturn, and Spica are in an unusually small equilateral triangle - about six degrees of each other. One thing everyone can enjoy are the colours: the crescent moon was nearly white last night, Saturn has a golden glow, and Mars is more orange than red. Spica herself is blue-white.

Spica, for those who don’t remember, is a particularly well-matched binary star system, and the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. 6th years, we’ll be discussing Spica in September as part of our look at precession. And for those of you who are early morning risers, Venus is particularly lovely in the hours before dawn this week as well.

I finally got a chance to spend the evening at the astronomy guild hall doing some research, and had a chance to catch up with several professional colleagues while we worked. There are some exciting topics under consideration for next summer’s guild-sponsored projects. Several have pieces that would make a good focus for the NEWT year-long research projects, and possibly open up internship opportunities for next summer. For those of you more interested in locational magics, there are a few possibilities there, as well.

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

I must say, it's been a most amazing few days. I've barely had time to catch my breath or sit down for a minute without having something else come along since Thursday afternoon. Not that a great deal of it hasn't been most enjoyable, mind you.

I'm quite looking forward to a few quiet days to settle down, catch up on various pieces of neglected work, and get some quality research time in, just for the change of pace. (And I've certainly got enough to keep me occupied for a bit.)

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!

My summer has been one headlong rush after another, it seems, with only a few pauses for breath. I'd thought I was largely done as of Friday, and spent Saturday most enjoyably at a small gathering, but come Sunday morning, there was an urgent owl asking me to come to the Ministry and sort out some additional details for ongoing YPL plans and philosophy (some of which is relevant to decisions about challenges for our current inaugural CCF programme, so we really did need to have a solution by Monday morning.)

We resolved the immediate discussions, but of course, these things grow, and I spent two more days with "Oh, while you're here, why don't we get this out of the way." and "We've got a new way of handling the documentation for this: you must learn how it works." and deep discussions about the balance of challenge and risk in various programmes past and planned.

Fortunately, we seem to have taken care of everything for the moment, so I spent the tail part of the afternoon deep in study at one of the observation archives, looking for details about meteor shower prediction (this year's Leonids are particularly auspicious for several magical potions and crafts.) I intend to go back tomorrow, before taking some time to just wander New London. There's so much to see. I rarely get the chance to do more than come to a meeting and head home again, so I'm taking advantage while I can.

First: those students who made it out to see the Leonid meteor showers the last two mornings had a wonderful view. I know how hard it is to get out of a cozy bed to go stand in the cold, but this year's showers were some of the best I've seen this decade, and the clouds weren't too bad.

If you'd still like to earn extra credit for your viewing, tomorrow morning is your last opportunity: I'll have the telescopes set up ninety minutes before dawn. (And I will have some tea ready for when we come back in.)

Second, as a reminder for all students now the weather's getting colder: I do have a box of hats, gloves, and other warm gear available. If you need help with your warming charms, I'm also glad to assist, and I'm sure your house prefects would be as well.

Finally, I'm delighted to announce that we'll be cooperating in a major new research project.

The Ministry is coordinating measurements of particular star movements from various points around the Protectorate, in order to create even more accurate charts and materials that do not rely on non-Protectorate materials. We will be focusing on the four "Royal Stars", which as most of you know are Aldebaran, Antares, Fomalhaut, and Regulus. Our initial work will be with Aldebaran, currently present in the southern sky in the hours before midnight. Our measurements will be compared with those from other locations, to better triangulate movements in space, so it's especially important they be as precise as possible.

Students are not required to help (other than those working on their NEWTs: we'll discuss the schedule in class). However, if you are interested in doing so, please see me for times: I'll appreciate help setting up the telescopes and needed devices, as well as making the actual measurements, and it is an excellent opportunity to gain skill with the tools and methods of astronomy.

This does mean that I will be less available for visits in my office for those with questions. You can expect that I will be up on the Astronomy tower regularly each evening between sunset and the end of the evening's classes. I'll be available for student questions between lectures during the day, or by arrangement. (Or you are welcome to come up to the tower and talk to me: there is plenty of time between the scheduled measurements we need for most questions.)

I'm taking Poppy's excellent advice (and taking a friend up on a spare bed...) and heading off to even more northern climes for a bit. Seems a bit odd, and even more so coming from Hogwarts, but there you are.

We've plans to do a bit of rambling, and a lot more stargazing. My friend's been plotting the movement of a number of comets for the last decade or more, and rather wants some help sorting the results out.

I expect I'll be back around the middle of July, ready to wrap up the last details for the camping trip (and in the meantime, it's not as if the owls can't find me: I've certainly left clear instructions here about any messages that come through.)

After various comments last week, I've done a few new things - worth noting here as a reminder, if nothing else.

Chilly during your class time? I've a collection of woolen gloves, hats, scarves, and socks in a box by my office door, if students have need of them for any reason. Someone never has their gloves or their hat or whatever. I hate to waste time with them going back to their room and all the way up the tower once more. (And I do agree with last week's comments: it's far too chilly to be up there without suitable clothing.)

However, I must say, I can't recommend many of the color combinations, so contributions in colors other than lime green, bright orange, fuscia, or an odd salmon/peach mix are most welcome. (Or, perhaps, students working on perfecting color in Transfiguration might like some practice objects?) Though, perhaps, the colors explain why the item has been 'lost' and was available for my loaner box.

We also spent a fair bit of time in the first and second year classes going over appropriate behavior while observing. No jostling, pushing, or otherwise interfering with use of the telescopes and other equipment, of course, even in fun. And we talked about the best ways to adjust settings when it's cold or the wind is blowing fiercely.

I'm awaiting a new set of short essays to be turned in next week, so could spend my afternoon today reading through some past correspondence - some lovely bits about the recent conjunctions and some other thoughts about some other ongoing areas of study. It's nice to feel properly caught up.