Queen star in awe of brighter stars

Rock star Brian May, from Queen, has swapped his guitar for a telescope to launch a book on his other great passion - astronomy.

May gave up his PhD studies of interplanetary dust to help form Queen but now, almost four decades on, he has come full circle to co-write Bang! The Complete History of the Universe with astronomers Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott.

"To me it is a spiritual force in my life," May said at the book's London launch.

"I have been through some wonderful times in my life and also through some very deep depressions.

"The stars are one of the things that have always given me hope. Just going out on a clear night and looking at the stars and seeing the steady light of these beautiful objects and realising how small my problems were has always been a source of inspiration."