According to Professor John Peacock he “became a professional astronomer by accident”. He has, however, gone on to be Professor of Cosmology and Head of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. This photograph of Peacock is part of a series of portraits of leading astronomers by Lucinda Douglas-Menzies. It was taken at the Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill in Edinburgh, yet from the interior setting the observatory’s iconic dome is not visible. Instead the background features an image, slightly out of focus, showing the distribution of galaxies as seen in a joint survey conducted between the UK and Australia, of which Peacock was the UK chairman. The inclusion of such minutiae is typical of Douglas-Menzies style and she documents these details in an accompanying text.