Observatory
Spherical, predictable, much a reflection of the heavens beyond is the temple of this observatory dedicated to the continued survey of the skies. Constructed sturdily and lined with shelves and cabinets necessary for equipment storage, nearly every available space on the smooth plastered walls is hidden by the arrangement of charts, maps and diagrams. A high ceiling arches above, contrived to be fitted with the portals necessary for viewing and carefully fabricated sliding shutters to protect the delicate sky-ward pointed lenses when not in use. On the wall opposite the door, so that all who enter may see it, is a 'mural' of the Rukbat system.
It is a summer sunrise. The pink and yellow sky awakens the songbirds, and a land breeze wafts towards the sea
On the cast-iron railings around the great viewer is Tanis.
You see Observatory DistanceViewer, Jayde's Distanceviewer, and Mural of the Rukbat System here.
Keris is here.
Qaylainie walks in from the Main Hall Balcony.
Linora looks up from the big distanceviewer at the sound of footsteps, greeting her mentor with a smile that more or less extends to the new apprentice as well. "Hey," she says, by way of greeting. "What's goin' on?"
Qaylainie
Standing at just over five and a half feet most of Ainie is her legs, so long they make the rest of her appear not quite the right size even if they do grant her a long walking stride. Whenever standing she tends to slouch a bit and as such her back hunches just a bit whether by instinct or by it not being able to straighten out anymore is up to one to guess. Shoulder length black hair is held back in pigtails with not one hair obscuring her klah colored eyes. Pale skin covers her body with only a small birthmark on one ankle.
A simple pair of clack trous adorns her long legs loosely with a black belt to hold them on and black boots below. Her tunic is another story altogether though for it's a bright yellow color more then making up for the drabness that adorns her lower body.
Qaylainie is 13 Turns and 3 days old.
Qaylainie steps into the Observatory slowly peering round as she does. Long legs carry her quickly in but soon as she sees other people there she takes shorter steps then pauses a bit in the room before she goes too far.
Keris trundles into the observatory, pausing thoughtfully as he spies hig mentee. "Hmm. Morning, Linora. Say, you're thinking about beginning a journeyman project soon, aren't you? Oh, hello... you," journeyman adds, grinning at Ainie. Never was good with names, was he.
Linora nods earnestly. "Yes, sir." She straightens, leaving her study of the Dawn Sisters altogether and brushing imaginary dust from her hands. "Soon's I come up with something."
Qaylainie stays off to the side of the room as she peers round the observatory not having been in this room quite yet. A nod goes towards Keris as the jman says hello though nothing more.
Rathan walks in from the Main Hall Balcony.
"Hmm. You're set on optics, I hear..." A sin, since her specialty is Charting. Tsk. Keris grins approvingly, though, and nods at Linora, then towards the two apprentices. "Why don't you tell these two a little on that subject? You haven't had any optics classes yet, have you?" That's directed towards Ainie and Rathan.
Rathan has disconnected. Rathan falls asleep.
Qaylainie shakes her head upon hearing Keris's question, "not yet Journeyman," she replies with only the faintest trace of a stutter. She peers over towards Keris and Linora curiously.
Linora colors a little and looks at the floor, though she does catch the grin. She peeks back up with a halfsmile and shrugs lightly. "I could do that." She always did like optics, after all. She turns her eyes to the new apprentices, reminding herself there's no need to be nervous. "Know anything at all about it?" That'd make it easier, although almost nobody has a clue before they come to the Hall.
Qaylainie shakes her head blushing just slightly, "um not really. Other of course that it's something starcrafters learn about," she adds the last as an afterthought more then anything, it's something at least if not much.
Keris just smiles triumphantly and retreats to the door, where he sits down in the closest available chair. There. He'll just sit and look cute and pretend he's doing stuff. And he is, of course. Supervising.
Linora grins. "Yeah. They do. We do." She looks at Ainie significantly, eyeing the knot on the girl's shoulder with something like approval. She pulls up a chair for herself, waving to indicate that Ainie should do the same, and takes out her own distanceviewer. "You'll be getting one'a these," she says, glancing over at Keris for confirmation.
Qaylainie nods then goes towards Linora and pulls up the chair nearest her flumping into it. She attempts as normal to tuck her long legs under it then grins as she succeeds in hiding them.
Keris jumps out of his chair and heads for a drawer, pulling out a small, handheld DV. "Here you go," is said cheerily, DV being handed to Ainie.
Linora takes a clean cloth from her pack and spreads it out on her lap, then begins carefully disassembling her own precious viewer. "There's three different kinds of viewers," she explains, her eyes on her task but her voice loud enough to be heard. "I'll explain the differences, but mostly they work the same way, collecting light and ... magnifying images." She does hesitate a little on the big word, but she's pretty sure she got it right. By now she's got the viewer apart, lenses carefully cradled in the cloth on her lap, and she holds up the empty tube. "This one's refracting." She takes the big lens and demonstrates how it goes at the wider end of the tube, then holds it out for Ainie to see.
Qaylainie takes the dv carefully from Keris's hands and peers at it, it being the first one she's ever held and first that was ever hers. Nods her head slowly as she peers over curiously as Linora takes hers apart then even more so as a lense is held out for her to see, eyebrow raises slightly as she looks at it head on then sideways.
Linora turns the lens around in her hand so the curved surfaces are visible. "See how it's curved? That's so it'll collect more light. Makes the surface of the glass bigger. An' it turns the image upside down." She grins wryly, believing the explanation even if she doesn't fully comprehend it. "Then the light goes inside the tube where it hits this smaller lens at the eyepiece. Along the way, the image gets magnified, so you can see stuff that's far away." She shrugs. "Has something to do with the thickness of the lens and the length of the tube, I think."
Qaylainie grins slightly as she nods her head. "All distance viewers are made exactly the same?" she wonders curiously as she peers down to her lap at her own new viewer.
Linora shakes her head, putting her own back together. "No... well, alla these portable ones are. But this one," she points over her shoulder at the big DV, "is different. It uses a big mirror t'collect the light, so it's a lot more powerful." Another explanation she doesn't fully comprehend, but it's obviously bigger, no? "It's a reflecting one, isn't it?" This last is to Keris. She's never seen the insides of the big DV, after all. Maybe he knows.
Qaylainie nods her head slowly, the bigger at least is more understandable and anyhows maybe she'll hear more bout it later on or in another class. She glances towards keris as linora does curious naturally.
Linora shrugs and continues. "Reflecting... an' I'm pretty sure this one is reflecting... means it uses mirrors. Mirrors reflect. There's two... " She gets up and with one hand indicates the near end of the barrel of the big DV. One big one would be just inside here, with a curved surface - like a dish - t'collect the light. The other end is open." We'll take that on faith, since it's too high to see easily. She takes a breath; this would be the hard part to explain but she's going to give it a shot. "The reflected image bounces back up the barrel an' hits another mirror - a flat one - that's angled toward the eyepiece." At least the eyepiece is visible, and she points to it. "An' there's a lens on the eyepiece t'bring the magnified image into focus." So you can see it. Obviously.
Qaylainie nods her head slowly as she gets up and goes over to the big one as Linora does. She takes a quick peek of cuiriousity through the eyepeice then looks back at linora. Her attention only wavered from the teacher for a moment really.
Linora grins. "It's okay t'peek." Really, it's nice to see some actual interest! "Before we're done I'll show ya how t'use yours." She sits back down and continues. "The third kind is called 'catadioptric'. I have no idea why, an' you're just gonna hafta remember that big word." A quick grin - some things we just take on faith. "It uses mirrors an' lenses together." She picks her distanceviewer up again and turns it over idly in her hands. "Now that y'got one a your own, you need t'know how t'take care of it and stuff. They're pretty sturdy, but you don't wanna bang 'em around and stuff."
Qaylainie blinks slightly at the big word then nods her head slowly. Eyes quickly glance down at her new viewer, "how hard of a bang is too hard? Should i keep it in a case?" she asks hurridly stuttering a few words as she does.
Linora looks thoughtful. "Well, yeah, a case is a good idea. You don't wanna drop it, or use it for a hammer or anything. Obvious stuff." She shrugs. "An' try an' keep it dry." She nods once, for emphasis. Not that there's much harsh weather about Gar, but it never hurts to mention it. "You can take it apart, like I just did with mine, t'clean the lenses and stuff, but you prolly won't need t'do that very often."
Linora grins and continues. "Well, enough t'keep it clean. But y'gotta be extra careful when it's open, not t'get junk inside the tube." That'd be worse than dirty lenses, for sure. "Any questions so far?" Trying to think if she overlooked anything important.
Qaylainie goes wide-eyed at the mention of using it for a hammer, that certainly wouldn't sound smart to her... "How do i clean the lenses just wipe with a cloth or do i use sand and water?" she asks curiously.
Linora shakes her head quickly. "Ohnononono!" The words are out of her mouth before she can think to say anything tactful. "Sand'd scratch 'em. An' each lens takes a long time t'make." She shakes her head again. "Y'wanna use a nice soft cloth, an' wipe 'em clean carefully."
Qaylainie nods her head slowly, "don't worry i'll just use a cloth and be careful then. Just wanted to check the best way," she says softly with a few stutters trying to reassure.
Linora smiles. "That's okay." Her expression is kind, really she hadn't meant to snap. "I visited the glassmaking area at the Smith Hall, so I know how much work it is t'replace 'em, is all." She shrugs lightly. "Guess the only other thing is the different kinda lenses." She carefully unscrews the big lens again and holds it up. "You saw this before, with the surfaces curving outward... that's called convex. If a lens or mirror has an inward curve," she cups her hand and holds it up as a kind of demonstration, "that'd be concave." She glances over at Keris. Is that everything?
Qaylainie nods her head slowly as she peers at the lense a smile slowly appearing and spreading a bit across her face.
Keris nods at Linora. "That'd be everything. Thank you, Linora." For taking off his burdens. Hehe.
Linora smiles, a relieved sigh escaping her. She remembered. "So that's it," she says to Ainie, shrugging lightly. "Good luck and stuff... an' welcome."
Date: Wed May 9 13:43:46 2001 CDT
From: Keris (#16771)
To: *StarCraft Mailer (#6574)
Subject: Lesson!
No, I didn't teach it - Keris found it a good idea (the lazy bum) to let Linora teach her supervised lesson. And she did, more specifically, comets, to the latest apprentice, Qaylainie. So, congratulate them both or whatever it is you do. :)
Keris, lazy Jman
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Date: Wed May 9 13:46:42 2001 CDT
From: Linora (#21132)
To: *StarCraft Mailer (#6574)
Subject: Lesson!
Yeah, Keris was paying a lot of attention. It was optics - don't make Qaylainie take it again, it's a hard one to schedule!
Linora, overworked mentee.
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