‘Most glorious night, thou wert not made for slumber!’
I WAS not motivated by a yearning to understand my place in the universe or for an alternative means of navigation (a compass and a map are less complicated and more reliable) and I have always felt that we could appreciate the beauty and mystery of the cosmos without being able to identify any of the billions of objects contained therein. No, what prompted me, in middle age, to take up astronomy as a hobby was my son Oliver. One Christmas, he asked for a telescope and, poor chap, quickly discovered (to my surprise as much as his own) that he would have to
