Monday Photo Prompt Astronomy

Eric 'Bubba' Alder from Bifocal Univision asks participants to respond to a photo he posts. Thank you Eric! 

Here is this week's photograph followed by my response.

Ever since he was a little boy Jamie had been fascinated by the stars. As he grew older he learnt to call his interest ‘astronomy’ and proudly told his friends he would be a world-famous astronomer one day.

His parents encouraged his curiosity, buying him books and taking him to the planetarium. His bedroom walls were plastered with posters showing nebulae and galaxies, stars and planets.

In adulthood he invested in telescopes of increasing complexity and clarity and travelled to locations that offered immense dark skies. He became an expert whose opinions were sought on every hand. He broadcast on television and radio, made documentary films, was asked to predict the future of astronomy.

What then was the attraction of this place, a town deserted and full of light pollution? A full moon hung in the night sky, its lustre competing with the street lighting. Below it two brilliant comets surpassed its luminance, their intensity increasing as they approached.

Jamie had determined that he would record this phenomenon. It was the culmination of his astronomical experience. It would be the end of his career and his life but he would have documented the end of the world.

Despite his training Jamie had always found it difficult to plan beyond immediate events.