Last night I happened to be in my back garden and looked up at the right time to watch the International Space Station pass overhead. Much troubled the still uncompleted and budget busting ISS may be, it's still a beautiful sight as it passes serenely by.
The ISS, however, wasn't the most impressive thing I saw last night, though to explain this, I first need to make a little detour...
There was a very moving programme on Channel 4 last night called The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off which concerned a man called Jonny Kennedy. He was born with a horrendous condition called EB which basically means that his skin would come off at a touch, leaving him covered in the most awful sores. Eventually this led to terminal cancer and the pogramme chronicled the last months of this remarkable and hugely brave man.
Now back to the astronomy:
As soon as the programme ended, I took my dog around the block for a short stroll. We'd scarcely left the house when I happened to look up and see a stunningly beautiful shooting star meeting its fiery end as it broke up high above us.
This is the connection:
Jonny arranged in great detail his own funeral, to the point of having the side of his coffin decorated with a tiger. This was a reference to a Queen song "Don't Stop Me Now" which was played at the service.
Here's the lyric in question
"I'm a shooting star leaping through the skies
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity"
In memory of an incredible man