STARSTRUCK

WE'VE ALWAYS BEEN FASCINATED BY STARRY STARRY NIGHTS AND, EQUIPPED WITH TELESCOPES, THE SKY'S THE LIMIT. WE TAKE A LOOK BACK AT OUR ASTRONOMICAL ENTHUSIASMS

JULIAN OWEN

We can't all be as lyrical as Shakespeare in describing the night sky – ‘this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof, fretted with golden fire’ – but it captivates us like nothing else. In 2004, archaeologists excavating an Aberdeenshire hillside uncovered a 10,000-year-old Mesolithic monument mirroring the phases of the moon, predating any other calendar by five millennia. If the celestial canopy's appeal is timeless, so is the urge to share its delights; no one ever witnessed a shooting star without exclaiming “LOOK!” This communal impulse applies just as much to the clever clogs on whom our astronomical knowledge depends. Take Galileo Galilei, the man whose telescopes revolutionised star study. The great polymath drew all he saw and published a pamphlet, ‘Starry Messenger’ (1610), the better to spread his findings.…

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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 2025

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