Page 25 of See the Stars

‘I don’t remember my father either,’ said Alice.

‘He died when I was very young.’ She wondered whether there was anything comforting to say to Berti about father figures and uncles and grandfathers.

‘My grandfather came to live with us after that. Like Matt has done with you.’ She thought a moment.

‘I used to be Thorington-Jones, after my dad, but I dropped the Jones so I had the same surname as my grandfather. It just felt right.’

‘I’d like to visit a real rocket even more than an observatory,’ said Berti, ignoring her. ‘I’ve been building replicas for years. Just small ones, but Mum says I’m not allowed to launch them in case I blow myself up.’

‘Telescopes are a bit less dangerous,’ Alice said.

‘Usually.’ She made a final adjustment. ‘Come on,’ she said.

‘It’s not perfect, but I think we should be able to make out the larger constellations with this now.

Let’s get it set up outside.’ She looked at the old tripod and decided she should definitely invest in a new one of those.

A steady base was more important than attachment to the original.

‘When do you think we’ll see the comet?’ asked Berti.

‘Some comets are easy to see,’ said Alice. ‘They are big and bright and pass close to the earth with dramatic tails. But if we’re right about this one, it’s going to be much tougher. It’s been passing through the skies for decades and no one has reported it. It will most likely be quick and faint.’

‘I’m going to look for it, though,’ said Berti. ‘What if tonight is the night?’

Alice smiled. ‘That’s what Grandpa used to say,’ she said.

‘When we start looking, we’ll follow his notes and sweep the sky at the declination he used.

But first let’s test the telescope on something easy to find so we can make sure that it’s working.

Jupiter, I was thinking. The biggest planet in the solar system should be hard to miss. ’

She coaxed open the tripod, then went back inside for the telescope. Gingerly she picked it up and slid it into place. She paused a moment, looking at it.

‘What’s the matter?’ asked Berti.

‘This will be the first time I’ve looked through this telescope for years,’ said Alice. ‘I feel a bit overwhelmed.’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Berti. ‘You probably haven’t even fixed it properly yet. You’ll most likely see nothing.’

‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ said Alice, with a little laugh that made her feel more relaxed.

She took a breath and leaned forward, her eyes adapting to the small aperture.

She felt the familiar strain as she focused on looking down the lens.

She’d carefully positioned the tripod so that the telescope pointed towards Jupiter, bright in the night sky.

‘Does it work?’ prompted Berti.

There it was. The gas giant. A pinprick of light to the naked eye, with the telescope she could see it for what it was. A perfect sphere, faintly striped. She could even see the Galilean moons orbiting it, drawn to its gravity like moths to the moon.

‘See for yourself.’ She stepped aside and allowed him to look. ‘The large ball with the faint stripes is Jupiter,’ she told him.

‘The colours are much more faded than I thought,’ he said.

‘That’s because you’re used to looking at computer-enhanced images. This is the real thing.’

‘And where’s the spot?’

‘It’s facing away from us tonight. Jupiter rotates itself every ten hours.

You can see the largest of its moons in orbit.

Ganymede, Europa, Callisto and Io. They were the first proof we had that not everything in the universe revolved around the earth as we once thought.

Galileo discovered that, and it changed the way we saw the universe.

It made people realise that humans are not the centre of everything.

’ She paused. ‘It puts our problems in perspective, when you realise how insignificant we are.’

‘Speak for yourself,’ said Berti. ‘Everything of any significance ever was done by someone like me.’

‘A thirteen-year-old boy?’ queried Alice.

‘No,’ he replied, his eye still focused down the telescope. ‘Someone who thinks a bit differently to everyone else. We might not have the most friends, but we see things others don’t. Newton, Einstein, even your Galileo. People with precise brains, not sloppy social brains.’

‘I’m glad you’re putting yourself in good company,’ said Alice. She was teasing him, but she thought of Zelda. Her brilliant mind and her struggles to relate to people.

No. Not all people. Alice had never felt closer to anyone.

She sighed.

‘Careful how you breathe,’ said Berti, looking up. ‘You’ll get condensation all over the viewfinder.’

‘Sorry,’ said Alice, firmly back in the present. ‘You’re absolutely right.’ She looked again at the telescope. ‘Now,’ she said, ‘where were we?’

‘Jupiter’s moons,’ said Berti. ‘Changing the way people saw the world.’

‘Of course,’ said Alice. ‘How could I forget.’

Berti smiled. ‘I think we’ll find this comet,’ he said. ‘Don’t you?’

‘Maybe. Space is so vast. It’s perfectly possible that no one else in the entire world is examining the piece of space that we are right now. Especially when you consider the different hemispheres with different views of the sky. And then when you add the light pollution, cloud cover . . . ’

‘What about all the computers hunting for comets?’ asked Berti, a rare wobble. ‘And the professionals? What if they find it first?’

‘Very often the computers do find things,’ said Alice.

‘Or a research team of professional astrophysicists. But sometimes it’s just someone who loves the skies.

Like the time an amateur in Brazil was looking at the right place at the right time and filmed a space rock hitting Jupiter.

His images told us things about that planet that the best computers and telescopes in the world couldn’t. ’

‘He was lucky.’

‘We could be too. It’s very possible for a postman from Yorkshire to discover a new comet. Or his granddaughter, decades later, on sick leave from her office job.’ She smiled at Berti. ‘And it could also be a very special thirteen-year-old boy who thinks about things differently.’