When Covid-19 emerged, my reading choices veered sharply to factual. I trained as an epidemiologist. Now, here was the disaster I’d been taught was inevitable. I pored over scientific papers about the new virus, trying to understand what was happening, as did my friend Peter whom I met at graduate school in Seattle, 30-something years ago. We began emailing each other critiques of public health responses to the pandemic, Peter from California where he’d retired, me from the Central Victorian bush. Peter approached the task with rigour, reviewing the modelling and preparing a summary ‘memo’ for me and his many other friends around the world.

Peter is meticulous in other respects too. He develops professional-level expertise at all his many hobbies, one of which is astronomy. So, as winter came, the stars at their twinkliest and Victoria locked down for a second time, I turned to Peter when I decided to buy a telescope. His advice: when you embark on a new hobby, read a good book before you start buying stuff. He recommended The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide by Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer. They suggest keeping it simple to start. Sit outside with a star chart and get to know the sky, they advise. Or lie in your yard on a child’s inflatable boat and ‘sail the celestial skies’ with the aid of binoculars.