Though some other sciences may seem to destroy it, astronomy restores a sense of religious awe.

Thomas Wright offers his readers a way of thinking about the enormous distances involved in any description of the solar system.

William Herschel showed that variations in the brightness of the sun were causing climate change, but hardly anyone believed him.

Sir Isaac Newton told William Stukeley about the day when an apple fell from a tree and set him thinking about the solar system.

Sir Isaac’s secretary has left us an engaging portrait of a kindly genius, the absent-minded professor of our fancy.

Sir William Herschel not only discovered Uranus and infrared radiation, but composed two dozen symphonies as well.