“ Sketches of mad skies spilling stars caught in spiraling gyres, diagrams for constructing sextants tall as a man and armillary spheres to mimic the motion of the cosmos. He decides that he must have a… John Pipkin
“ But if watching the sky is to be his duty, how should he begin? Now and then he has spotted one of the five bright planets or recognized a constellation, but he knows little about the turning of the h… John Pipkin
“ Is this not the very thing that drives an adventurous man to navigate uncharted oceans, to traverse continents and mountains, to pilot virgin estuaries and hidden coves—this promise of inscribing a na… John Pipkin
“ The basis of English law is as simple as this: If you would know the future’s shape, look to the past. John Pipkin
“ It is only the sudden and unpredictable appearance of comets that spoils the immutable celestial sphere. John Pipkin
“ It is one of the great blessings of youth, this guiltlessness, the source of gentle sleep and peaceful days. John Pipkin
“ Nothing in heaven or earth is content to be alone, and so there must always be something more. The universe is governed by a principle no more complicated than this: that a solitary body will forever… John Pipkin
“ The heavens are too immense, too beautiful and varied, to fit into the mind of any one deity; the murmured creeds of fathers and sons are no match for the astronomer’s gasp. John Pipkin
“ Each new scientific fact gives rise to new uncertainties, and every pattern of starlight holds both a record and a prophecy. John Pipkin
“ Her calculations have always held the utmost accuracy, but mathematics alone will not be enough to guide her; she must learn to trust in chance and, if need be, in accident. John Pipkin
“ What has been his cause for searching the heavens day and night, for testing the limit of his reach hour by hour like a man trapped inside an expanding balloon? The reasons were as various as the days… John Pipkin
“ He tracks the rise and fall of the glittering darkness thronged with specks and tendrils of luminous secrets. Falling stars crackle in the cold air and prickle his skin. They flash in the corner of hi… John Pipkin
“ So we will cover every possibility. We will take turns at the telescope. I will keep watch in the day, and at night you will take my place, and together we will see to it that no part of the sky goes… John Pipkin
“ As the eclipse progresses, a confusion of chattering birds sweeps low in search of dusk and their shadows skip over the water’s surface and it makes perfect sense that these small creatures should be… John Pipkin
“ ...but at night when he turns the awkward [telescope] skyward, he catches his breath at the clarity of the image and the vast populations of stars unknown to him until then, the riotous glittering in… John Pipkin
“ The same ratios that govern music give laws to optics and to the movement of the heavens as well. Simple. Elegant. Predictable. John Pipkin
“ Time lost to pointless delay can never be regained. It is the most reprehensible kind of theft. Why was it that men did not grasp this simple fact? Money comes and goes and comes again, and knowledge… John Pipkin
“ Sometimes he counts himself to sleep by imagining the miles between stars like the succession of footsteps cleaving him from his home, as if mastering the distance in thought might blunt the separatio… John Pipkin
“ Here the sky is wrapped in silk. The breathings of so many men and animals, and the smoke of your coal, and the fog, oh, it is too much. The Paris sky is perfect. A man must see clearly, to see someth… John Pipkin
