My father sparked my love for outer space. I hope he sees a picture of James Webb

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Later, Dawes became the inspiration for Kate Grenville astronomer Daniel Rooke di Lieutenant (2008), before appearing as herself, instructs Elizabeth Macarthur in stargazing, at Room Made of Leaves (2020). And at Ashley Hay’s Body in the Cloud (2010), Dawes is one of three characters united by their attraction to stars. Others are 1930s bridge workers and modern bankers. Dawes described Sydney Harbor as having “a few tricks” to its appearance, “like the inside of a telescope”. Despite being separated by time, all three miraculously see the same fallen man.

It’s surprising how often astronomy appears in fiction about death. In the work of Kathleen Watson Broken Dream House (1908), astronomer Eric was the only child of a single mother. His career epitomizes his lofty ideals, but his obsession with heroism has devastating consequences. D’Arcy Niland writes about a girl who learns to live without her father at Call Me When The Cross Turns (1957, named after the annual round of the Southern Cross). And young Ort, in Tim Winton Those eyes, Sky (1986), probably lost his father too, after a ute accident. “Even stars die,” Ort realized, “you see them fall from the sky. Mother often said that it was the sky that shed tears.”

A young girl observes the night sky.Credit:iStock

Reading, I wonder how Shirley Hazzard chose the astronomical metaphor Transit of Venus (1980). Did he know he was going to write about the two sisters before he even considered that Venus transits occur in pairs? The astronomer, Ted, looks up at the stars and falls in love after seeing Caro climb the stairs. Stephen Orr’s teen clamp di This Amazing Machine (2019) uses a telescope to keep an eye on his neighbors. The story is set in 1984; no doubt today Clem will be staring at them via Snapchat or TikTok.

Hundreds of science fiction and fantasy and children’s books featuring astronomy. Patricia Wrightson’s Nargun and Star (1973) is credited as the earliest children’s book to use creatures from the Dreamtime. Gary Crew uses real-life astronomer John Tebbutt to broaden young Alicia’s horizons in Bright star (1996), named for Keats’ poem. Also from Keats is Dorothy Porter’s judul title Wild Conjecture (2002). Starting with the three inspirational words “Let’s travel”, the narrator invites us to Jupiter’s moon Europa, looking to prove “Live / Brave everywhere”.

Also looking for extra-terrestrial life is Noah at James Bradley clade (2015), which received “signals from foreign cultures”. This novel twists us through time (and, now, a pandemic). Noah found the signal, but this novel is more about what we do for our own planet than what we might learn from others. In the work of Melanie Joosten Gravity Well (2017), astronomer Lotte prefers to look into space than to understand himself. He inherited his interest in stars from his mother, whose death he still accepts. Joosten describes families as being like the solar system, whose members can “drift too close” or “live too far and risk being cut off”.

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In Night Map, Lucy’s husband and daughter are driven to desperate measures by their respective decisions. The relationship between parents and children remains at the heart of the stories we tell, as did the first stargazers.

My father died while I was writing Night Map. In the months that have passed since then, I have come to realize that my evening with him at Armidale many years ago was an important part of my own story. While I look forward to discussing these James Webb photos with him, hopefully they will serve as inspiration for many future storytellers.

Kimberley Starr is a Melbourne writer. Night Map (Pantera Press) is out now.

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