Tower & Tome69 notes on the Moon, planets, stars, constellations and star signs, written for wizarding-school roleplay. Each one has a teaching tip for professors.
Search, filter and quiz these notesA pale, milky stone. It is ground to a powder for calming potions and love potions.
Teaching tip: Link it to the Moon notes. Ask why a stone named for the Moon might be thought calming.
Also on: Potions
In astrology, each planet stands for a part of life.
Teaching tip: Give each student a planet and have them invent a prediction in its style. The class guesses which planet they had.
Also on: Divination
Every star sign has a ruling planet. Traditional and modern astrology agree on nine signs and differ on three.
“Old charts stop at Saturn. New ones go all the way out to Pluto.”
Teaching tip: Ask why the old system has only seven rulers. Students should work out that nobody could see Uranus, Neptune or Pluto without a telescope. Then ask whether Pluto should still count, now that astronomers call it a dwarf planet.
Also on: Divination
The first sign of the zodiac, for birthdays from about 21 March to 19 April.
Teaching tip: Ask students born under a fire sign to say whether the bold description fits them. Then ask the class what that tells us about how reliable star signs are.
Also on: Divination
The second sign of the zodiac, for birthdays from about 20 April to 20 May.
Teaching tip: Have students find Aldebaran on a star chart, then compare the astronomy fact with the astrology meaning. Which one can be checked?
Also on: Divination
The third sign of the zodiac, for birthdays from about 21 May to 20 June.
Teaching tip: Pair students up as twins. Each describes the other's character in three words, then they swap. It is a quick lesson in how general descriptions fit almost anyone.
Also on: Divination
The fourth sign of the zodiac, for birthdays from about 21 June to 22 July.
Teaching tip: Cancer is hard to see. Ask why a faint constellation still became a famous sign, and what that says about where the zodiac came from.
Also on: Divination
The fifth sign of the zodiac, for birthdays from about 23 July to 22 August.
Teaching tip: Regulus means little king. Ask students which characters they know with sky names, and whether the name suits them.
Also on: Divination
The sixth sign of the zodiac, for birthdays from about 23 August to 22 September.
Teaching tip: Teach the star-hop: follow the curve of the Big Dipper's handle to Arcturus, then on to Spica. Students say it aloud as they trace it.
Also on: Divination
The seventh sign of the zodiac, for birthdays from about 23 September to 22 October.
Teaching tip: Libra is the only sign that is an object, not a creature. Ask students what they would weigh on the scales to decide something fairly.
Also on: Divination
The eighth sign of the zodiac, for birthdays from about 23 October to 21 November.
Teaching tip: Antares means rival of Mars, because both look red. Have students explain how to tell a red star from the red planet.
Also on: Divination
The ninth sign of the zodiac, for birthdays from about 22 November to 21 December.
Teaching tip: The archer is drawn as a centaur. Link it to the centaurs of the forest, who read the stars in their own way.
Also on: Divination
The tenth sign of the zodiac, for birthdays from about 22 December to 19 January.
Teaching tip: Ask students to draw a sea-goat from the description alone, then compare drawings. It shows how star pictures come from imagination.
Also on: Divination
The eleventh sign of the zodiac, for birthdays from about 20 January to 18 February.
Teaching tip: Students often think Aquarius is a water sign because of its name. Use it as a memory check on the four elements.
Also on: Divination
The twelfth and last sign of the zodiac, for birthdays from about 19 February to 20 March.
Teaching tip: Pisces closes the circle. Have students recite all twelve signs in order, then say which sign comes after it.
Also on: Divination
Astrology sorts the twelve signs into four elements, three signs each.
“Fire acts, earth builds, air thinks, water feels.”
Teaching tip: Sort the class into four corners by element. Each group lists what its three signs are said to share, then the class votes on whether it rings true.
Also on: Divination
A small constellation shaped like a little ladle, also called the Little Dipper. The North Star sits at the end of its handle.
Teaching tip: Have students find Polaris using the Big Dipper's pointer stars first, then trace the Little Dipper back from it.
Five bright stars in the shape of a W or an M, depending on the time of night.
Teaching tip: Draw a W on the board and ask students to turn their chart until it matches the sky. It teaches that constellations rotate through the night.
A large cross of stars pictured as a swan flying along the Milky Way. It is also called the Northern Cross.
Teaching tip: Teach the Summer Triangle: students find Deneb, Vega and Altair, then say which constellation each one belongs to.
A small constellation pictured as a harp, home to Vega, one of the brightest stars in the night sky.
Teaching tip: Ask students why a tiny constellation is still easy to find. The answer is one very bright star.
The hunting dog that follows Orion across the winter sky. It holds Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
Teaching tip: Star-hop from Orion: students follow the line of the belt down and to the left until they reach Sirius.
A long, winding line of stars that curls between the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper.
Teaching tip: Have students trace the dragon's long body between the two Dippers with a finger, then find the four stars of its head.
A large constellation best known for the Great Square, four stars that mark the horse's body.
Teaching tip: Ask students to find the Great Square first, then use it as a signpost to Andromeda next door.
A line of stars that stretches away from one corner of the Great Square of Pegasus.
Teaching tip: On a dark night, have students look for the faint smudge of the Andromeda Galaxy and work out how old that light is.
The solar system is the Sun plus everything that orbits it: eight planets, their moons, dwarf planets, asteroids and comets.
“My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Noodles. Or make up your own.”
Teaching tip: Make a human model. Students stand as the Sun and planets in order and say one fact about their planet. Get the order wrong on purpose and let the class fix it.
The Sun is a star, a giant ball of hot gas that makes its own light and heat and holds the whole solar system together with its gravity.
Teaching tip: Ask students to explain why the Sun looks small and gentle from here but is actually a star like the ones at night. Link it to distance.
The smallest planet and the closest to the Sun, with a year of only 88 Earth days.
Teaching tip: Temperature debate: Mercury is closest to the Sun but is not the hottest planet. Ask students why, then reveal Venus.
The hottest planet, wrapped in thick clouds that trap heat, and the brightest planet in our night sky.
Teaching tip: Ask students why a planet can be hotter than the one closer to the Sun. The answer is its thick, heat-trapping air.
The third planet and the only one we know has life.
Teaching tip: Ask what makes Earth different from the other seven planets. Students should name liquid water, air we can breathe and a stable climate.
The red planet, a cold desert world with the tallest volcano known in the solar system.
Teaching tip: Tie it to the centaur belief that a bright Mars warns of conflict. Ask students what science says about why it looks red and bright.
A wide ring of rocky leftovers between Mars and Jupiter.
Teaching tip: Correct the movie picture. Ask students to explain why the belt is mostly empty space and a spaceship could fly through easily.
The biggest planet, a giant ball of gas with a storm bigger than Earth.
Teaching tip: Scale activity: if Earth is a marble, Jupiter is a basketball. Have students pick the right objects to show the size difference.
The ringed planet, famous for bright, wide rings made of ice and rock.
Teaching tip: Ask why rings are made of ice and rock chunks instead of a solid disc. Students can model it with beads on a plate.
A pale blue ice giant that spins tipped over on its side.
Teaching tip: Have students act out the sideways tilt: slowly roll a ball on its side around a lamp and describe what the seasons would be like.
The farthest planet from the Sun, a deep blue world with the fastest winds in the solar system.
Teaching tip: Tell the discovery story as a mystery: astronomers noticed Uranus drifting off course and worked out where a hidden planet must be.
Small, round worlds that orbit the Sun but have not cleared their path of other objects.
Teaching tip: Hold a mini debate on the 2006 vote: should Pluto still be a planet? Students argue using the three rules for a planet.
Dirty snowballs of ice and dust that grow glowing tails when they come close to the Sun.
Teaching tip: Ask which way a comet's tail points as it moves around the Sun. Most students guess behind it. The answer is away from the Sun.
A meteor, or shooting star, is a tiny space rock burning up as it hits the air.
Teaching tip: Plan a watch night in character. Students pick a good dark spot, a time and what they will bring, and report how many streaks they saw.
A star is a huge ball of hot gas that makes its own light through nuclear fusion.
“Stars twinkle. Planets just shine.”
Teaching tip: Quick sort: students place objects in the sky into star, planet, moon or other. Look for the common mistake of calling planets stars.
A star's colour tells you how hot it is.
Teaching tip: Draw a campfire or stove flame. Students predict what colour is hottest, then match it to the star colours.
A constellation is a pattern of stars people have named, used for finding your way across the sky.
Teaching tip: Have students invent a new constellation by joining dots on a star map, then explain the story behind it.
One of the easiest constellations to spot, with three bright stars in a row forming a belt.
Teaching tip: Teach a star-hop. Start at Orion's three belt stars and have students use them to find other bright stars nearby.
The Big Dipper is a group of seven stars. Follow its two outer stars and they point to Polaris.
Teaching tip: Practice finding north. Two students trace the line from the Dipper's pointer stars while the rest check their route on a map.
The zodiac is the band of twelve constellations the Sun appears to pass through during the year.
Teaching tip: Separate astronomy from astrology in class. Ask students what the zodiac stars are, then how some wizards use them for divination.
The brightest star in the night sky, in the constellation Canis Major, the Greater Dog.
Teaching tip: Ask students why a character might be named after a star. Link it to families who name children after the sky.
A light-year is a distance, not a time: how far light travels in one year.
Teaching tip: Do a travel-time exercise. Students work out how long the closest star's light takes to reach us, then discuss why starlight is old news.
Stars are born from clouds of gas, shine for a long time, then fade or explode.
Teaching tip: Make a flow chart together and add short in-character captions at each stage. It doubles as a story timeline for a long-lived character.
The Milky Way is our galaxy, a huge spiral of hundreds of billions of stars. We live inside it.
Teaching tip: Ask students to explain why we see the galaxy as a band across the sky and not a disc. They can use a plate seen edge-on.
Seasons happen because Earth is tilted, not because it moves closer to or farther from the Sun.
Teaching tip: Bust a myth. Ask whether summer is when Earth is closest to the Sun, then show that the tilt matters more than the distance.
You can see five planets without a telescope: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Teaching tip: Make a sky-watch log: students record date, time and where they saw a bright steady light, then check it against a star chart.
Good stargazing is about patience and preparation more than equipment.
Teaching tip: Run a night-class scene. Students check the checklist aloud before they start, as a professor would.
A star chart is a map of the sky showing where stars and planets appear at a given date and time.
Teaching tip: Give each student a simple star map and have them find three named stars. They log the date and time, as in Astronomy class.
The Moon goes through 8 phases in about 29.5 days as it orbits Earth.
“The Moon is always half lit by the Sun. The phase is just how much of that lit half we can see.”
Teaching tip: Have students act it out: one holds a lamp (the Sun), one walks a ball (the Moon) around a classmate (Earth). Ask what each person sees from where they stand.
The Moon sits between Earth and the Sun, so the lit side faces away and we cannot see it.
Teaching tip: Ask why the dark Moon is the one time a solar eclipse can happen. Have students trace the Sun-Moon-Earth line on the board.
A thin sliver of light appears on the right side and grows each night.
Teaching tip: Pair students up: one draws the thin sliver from memory, the other checks it against the strip at the top of the page. Ask which side is lit.
The right half is lit. The Moon is a quarter of the way around its orbit.
Teaching tip: Clear up the name trap: it looks like a half Moon but is called a quarter. Ask students to explain it using the orbit, not the picture.
More than half lit and still growing toward full.
Teaching tip: Ask students to describe the shape in their own words before you give the word gibbous. Own words first, vocabulary second.
Earth is between the Sun and Moon, so the whole face is lit.
Teaching tip: Connect it to three other subjects: creatures, potions and plants. Ask which one depends most on exact timing.
The light starts shrinking from the right side.
Teaching tip: Use it for a gratitude round: each student shares one thing they learned this week, in character.
The left half is lit. The Moon is three quarters of the way around.
Teaching tip: Ask how this phase differs from the first quarter. A good answer names which side is lit, and that the Moon is shrinking.
A thin sliver on the left before the Moon goes dark again.
Teaching tip: Have students predict what comes next and how many nights until the cycle restarts. It reinforces the 29.5-day idea.
Waxing means the lit part is growing. Waning means it is shrinking.
“Light on the right, growing bright. Light on the left, little is left.”
Teaching tip: Teach the right/left rule, then flip the question: what would a student in the southern hemisphere see? Good stretch for older years.
The phase depends on where the Moon is in its orbit, which changes how much of its sunlit half faces Earth.
Teaching tip: Most students blame Earth's shadow. Ask them to explain why that cannot be right, given that lunar eclipses are rare but phases happen every night.
The Moon passes between the Sun and Earth and blocks the Sun.
Teaching tip: Safety moment first: ask the class what protection a careful student would use, and why a quick peek is still a bad idea.
Earth passes between the Sun and Moon, and Earth's shadow falls on the Moon.
Teaching tip: Ask students to compare it with the solar eclipse in two columns: what blocks what, which phase, how long it lasts.
We study eclipses to predict the sky, and omens to work out what sky events might mean.
“Because the sky gives warnings before the world does, Professor.”
Teaching tip: Short debate: is an omen a fact or a story people tell? Ask for one ordinary explanation and one magical explanation of the same sky event.
Observing is recording what is really there. Interpreting is working out what it means. Always in that order.
“First we watch, then we wonder. A wizard who interprets without observing is only guessing.”
Teaching tip: Use two columns on the board: What I saw, and What I think it means. Any opinion that lands in the first column gets moved to the second.
Taught at night on top of the Astronomy Tower, the tallest tower in the castle.
Teaching tip: Run it as a night lesson scene: students arrive with a chart, name one star or planet, and say one observation before leaving.
Students chart the planets and learn their moons for homework and exams.
Teaching tip: Give each student one planet to chart for homework. In class they present one surprising fact in under thirty seconds.