Catherine Heymans

Meet the starry-eyed astronomer who loves backyard stargazing.

The night before The Week Junior Science+Nature spoke to Catherine Heymans, she was outside stargazing. “It’s so beautiful, your imagination can go wild,” she says. If she could have one wish come true, Heymans says she’d like everyone to see what the night sky looked like before it became polluted by lights that obscure the stars. Heymans is a professor of astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh and Astronomer Royal for Scotland. She is the UK’s first female Astronomer Royal.

Sharing her passion