First Letter by Alexandra Zampara (from Issue TWENTY)

I would like to share a few thoughts on astronomy and what it can mean to someone.

As a profession or as a so-called hobby, it is not chosen by chance. The reason for occupying yourself with it lies deep in the soul, in the very essence of your own being. People who take it up, whether pros or amateurs, end up devoting a big part of themselves to it. You cannot just ‘like’ astronomy. You either get totally absorbed by it or it passes by as a very short enthusiasm which doesn’t take but a few moments of your life.  In this case, it doesn’t reveal to you anything of true enchantment.

Astronomy didn’t begin just as a science on paper or as plain and dry calculations, it began as a vision - a dream, a sole purpose, and some people were even killed for their ideas.  There aren’t perhaps a lot of sciences that carry martyrs in their history.  The essence of this science or art lies in those first human eyes that turned up with awe to the night sky and were given just a touch of the infinity and the great wonders beyond their comprehension.

This essence lies in those sleepless nights, one after another, when you live the thrill of star hunting.  To begin your relationship with the sky, or rather your communion, it may be enough to simply let your soul be filled by the music of the stars.

(written in 1995 by 18 year old Alexandra Zampara, a freshman at the Aristoltelian University,  Thessaloniki, Greece.)