A kosmische evening in Whitley Bay

Last night my wife, Vicky and I decided to have a walk down to the beach in Whitley Bay to look at a laser projection called Global Rainbow, which is here for four nights as part of the celebrations for the 2012 London Olympics.

My pictures hardly do justice to this impressive visual spectacle, which stretches from the headland near St. Mary's Lighthouse (see my blog post on New Year's Day) across the sky and over to the horizon, as far as the eye can see.

On the way back I was pointing out the planets to my wife when we both saw a large object in the sky that looked as if it was on fire. At first I was deeply concerned that we were witnessing an aircraft in trouble, as a long plume of yellow and purple flame seemed to trail from behind whatever it was. As a result of the lasers there were lots of people around and we could hear them collectively expressing shock as they too witnessed what we were seeing. Unfortunately by the time I'd focused my camera on the object it was well on its way towards the edges of visibility, as it shot overhead. I captured the photograph below, which was rather disappointing but I'll certainly never forget what I saw.

This morning the object, a meteor, has made the national news in Britain, with an amateur film shot in Whitley Bay shown on the BBC. It is possible to read about it and watch a clip here. A worker at a space observatory in Kielder, Northumberland has tweeted: "Of 30 years observing the sky - fireball best thing I have ever seen period." I would certainly be surprised if I ever see anything as spectacular again.

From cosmic skies to cosmic writings today has seen me take the fifth draft of the book as far as a section about the New Age of Earth album. No massive changes to what I had already written. I'm just carefully checking facts and spellings etc. and making a series of minor adjustments as I go along. Getting there, as ever. These, it seems, are cosmic times.....