Plot

Four of the world's leading astronomers celebrate 50 years of friendship and exploration on a reunion road trip through the American Southwest.

During the Space Race of the 1960's, four British astronomers traveled to California to work on some of the studies that have shaped our understanding of the universe and our place in it. Fifty years on, the four friends reunite for a final American road trip. As the likeable four friends explore major recent discoveries in astronomy together, this charming doc reflects upon the fleetingness of our lives played out beneath the stars.

Four exceptional astronomers celebrate 50 years of work and friendship on a road trip in the southwestern United States, recapturing youthful adventures and recounting each other's influences on the most exciting period in astronomy's history. Filmed in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah in the USA, and Cambridge, England, the storytelling marries first-person narration, humor and beauty to produce a deeply moving portrait of life and friendship as the men visit telescopes, pause at the Grand Canyon, and re-take a hike that nearly defeated them when they were young. In old age and facing death, their journey through breathtaking landscapes and under spectacular star-filled skies provokes them to reflect on how their work on the universe has illuminated the individual, affecting their sense of religious faith, the purpose of life, and what is knowable and unknowable.