In a Past Life...

Do you ever wonder what you would have been in a past life? I have, that is not meant to sound self-centred.

What I imagine is myself waking up in 16th-17th century Italy, the time of Galileo, wearing the clothing of the day. I imagine walking outside in the hot, humid, sticky air. I imagine working as an astronomer. Maybe even the first female astronomer in the country of Italy, maybe even the world. Okay, I am getting ahead of myself.

Growing up in the suburbs of a medium-sized city and in the countryside, I could go outside at night and see hundreds of thousands of stars. Astronomy has always interested me and I love doing astrophotography. I never pursued it as a career, because I was not good at math and science in school. I am obsessed with history and enjoy learning about the past. I follow NASA on social media and get excited about rocket launches.

To set the scene, my villa has cream and yellow-coloured, stone walls. The doors have beautiful mahogany wood trim around them. It is a single-floor home, with one bedroom, a wood-burning stove and a wooden dining set. Simple, but cozy, and it fits my needs. My villa has a balcony and I set up my telescope out there.

I never thought I would ever discover anything more than stars, until one night. I will tell you all about it.

The day started out normally. I woke up early and cleaned my villa. It was bright, sunny and clear outside. There was a light breeze, but it was hot, muggy and humid, I strongly dislike hot weather.

Suddenly, there is a knock on my door. I go to the door and open it. I see that it is a colleague of mine from the Italian government. I am charged with creating star charts of any stars, planets, or anything else I see in the night sky. This colleague of mine is about six feet tall, with dark hair and tan skin.

"Good day, Miranda," he said.

"Good day, Antonio," I said. "Can I offer you a beverage?"

"No, no thank you, I am fine," Antonio said. "Make any new discoveries recently?"

I hold up and unroll a brown scroll of paper. This paper documents everything I have seen in the night sky.

"Nothing major, just a few more banks of stars," I said. "Everything is marked here."

"These stars are just a small part of our galaxy. Keep up the good work," Antonio said.

"Thank you, have a great day," I said as I saw him out.

"See you same time, same day next week," he says.

"See you then," I said.

The day progresses and I make myself a cup of tea on the wood-burning stove, I mentioned earlier. I make myself dinner as well. I made, well, of course, pasta. As they say, when in Rome. I also just really like pasta.

By the time dinner was over, it was dark and it was time to go out and look at the night sky.

That night was clear. I was slowly panning my telescope across the sky. As I said, I did not think I would see anything new. I was almost ready to pack it in for the night and try again 24 or so hours later and then it happened.

I saw a new cluster of stars that I had never seen before. This cluster was round with two smaller swirls in it.

I zoomed my telescope in a bit more and noticed it looked more like a crab.

I thought it looked like a constellation. I documented it and on a separate sheet of paper, sketched its shape.

I then fell asleep at my telescope.

The next morning, I ran down the street to the government office to show my colleagues what I had seen.

We agreed it was a new constellation and named it, cancer, which I thought seemed like a morbid name.

Again, I truly never thought I would discover something that is now part of something that is part of our modern, western zodiac.

I think in a past life, I imagine I was an astronomer, in 16th or 17th century Italy.