Missing the meteorite...

Here’s a doodle of the comet I didn’t see.

I missed the comet over Knutsford last night. I took a look at it on Youtube though and it was quite a spectacle. Thousands of people spotted the chunk of fist-sized space rock burning up as it smashed its way through the earth’s atmosphere at about 10pm last night, 60 or 70 miles up. Not me though, I was having a beer and watching the telly while all the celestial excitement was going on. Just what do you have to do to see this things, spend your evenings on a hill in the cold your head ever skywards as you crane your neck? I guess you do.

Once I spent a whole night in a cornfield on my back, gazing up to the sky waiting to see a promised meteor shower. All I saw were planes and one single, solitary satellite as it slowly passed its way across the sky.

I did see a shooting star the other evening, out of the corner of my eye as I walked home, about a seconds worth and hardly a spectacle. Better than nothing though I guess, and there was a rainbow yesterday afternoon.

Maybe that light in the sky wasn’t a comet at all. Maybe it was an alien spacecraft falling to the earth from who knows where, or an angel - all burning wings and a long musical scream. Maybe it was even an old soul returning home after ages of wandering the cosmos. Who knows?

But whatever it was, I didn’t see it.