“I’m sure you are all aware of Lightning.”
Silence. Stillness. The professor looked around the room and found that, to his quiet dismay, the class was already bored. He could see more horns than eyes, as some of his students were attempting to steal a quick nap.
“Ah, ahem, yes, so, Lightning,” he continued, taking a moment to regain his composure. “It’s pretty hard to miss, isn’t it? Perhaps the flashiest of the 8 basic elements that make up our world. Terrifying and loud and bright as it crashes across the sky. Truly the stuff of legends, or at least, our ancestors thought so.”
“But that is not the subject of this class. We’re here to study a different kind of light in the sky. Quieter, less ephemeral, still unless tracked over long periods of time.” The more curious students were a little more perked up now. The professor went on, encouraged by this.
“These, too, are the subjects of many myths. They’re perfectly visible to anyone who looks up at the sky at night, and yet… we know so little about them. But with how many they are, and how far away they must be, it’s clear that they are somehow fundamental to the universe’s inner workings.”
“This class has little in the way of curriculum to teach you. Indeed, getting the board to accept my proposal for its existence in the first place was quite difficult. What we’re really going to do here, though, is discovery. Turning our gaze upwards and solving the universe’s longest-standing puzzles and mysteries.”
He had their attention now, for sure. This was no mere “class”, it was the real deal.
“Students… it is with great honor that I welcome you all to the first ever astronomy class.”