Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

In my first class today I discussed four constellations from Orion to Canis Major. But it was only I started talking about the last one that I realized I didn't have the transparency for it. So I had to talk about it using the starmap, and just used the fact that it looks mostly like a dog for them not to need an illustration.

As usual, I got the same reactions from those who have read Harry Potter, and for once it was mostly female voices that carried out their own conversations for some time from that point onward.

And it was only then that some of them realized by the name Bellatrix from Orion sounded familiar too.

From Canis Major it was easy to segue into the Winter Triangle, and how the hand can be used to estimate 20, 15, 10, 5 and 2 celestial degrees.

20 celestial degrees is the distance of any two stars in the equilateral Winter Triangle from each other. This, I told them, they could try by sticking out their thumb and little finger at arms length when they see Sirius, Procyon and Betelguese.

10 celestial degrees, for example, is the minimum distance any star is visible above the horizon.

2 celestial degrees is the diameter of the Sun and the Moon as seen from the Earth.

Maybe I'll detail how I lecture these some other time.

It was only in my second class though that one of the students asked if there are classes on Friday. I answered in the affirmative, as there had already been a memo to that effect circulated from the Executive Vice President's Office.

But I told them to wait for any announcements tomorrow pending protests from various sectors in the community.

She had a follow-up question though. She said that if classes were not suspended, would I still hold class? I said yes.

Of course, there's nothing I could do if none of my students showed up, and I don't have to schedule a make-up session. I was tempted to tell them that, but I didn't.