I have just started reading the novel Nemesis by Bill Napier, an astronomer at Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland. It’s about the Russians aiming an asteroid at the United States and the race to find and deflect it. There’s a wonderful quote on page 39:
Webb’s scrotum contracted, as it always did when he faced great heights or imminent danger. It would do a lot of contracting over the next few days.
I want to see more astronomers write like that, especially on the ATNF website.