The great spirals... apparently lie outside our stellar system.

Observations always involve theory.

There we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial.

I knew that even if I were second or third rate, it was astronomy that mattered.

Equipped with our five senses - along with telescopes and microscopes and mass spectrometers and seismographs and magnetometers and particle accelerators and detectors sensitive to the entire electromagnetic spectrum - we explore the universe around us and call the adventure science.

The great spirals... apparently lie outside our stellar system.

Astronomy is something like the ministry. No one should go into it without a call. I got that unmistakable call, and I know that even if I were second-rate or third-rate, it was astronomy that mattered.