© NASA/JPL-Caltech                   Located about 700 light-years from Earth, eye-like Helix nebula is a planetary nebula, or the remains of a Sun-like star. When these stars run out of their internal fuel supply, their outer layers puff up to create the nebula. The nebula is heated by the hot core of the dead star, called a white dwarf, which is not visible in this image but is located in the middle of the “eye.”                                                                          Our Sun will blossom into a planetary nebula when it dies: in about 5 billion years. Joie

Who knows if the scintillatingly piratical Alan Parsons had knowledge of deep space in mind when he penned Eye in the Sky and gave it the Fortnums-toned green album sleeve? The song became an anthem before raves were even a thing.

The image above, projecting itself onto a celestial telescope, is captured a mere 700 light years from us (you’ll recall 1 light year represents a distance of 5.6 trillion miles: we don’t know how many noughts that is).

Looking at the Earth, the only life-sustaining (as-we-comprehend-it), beautiful blue ball hanging in the whole space of the Universe*, it doesn’t seem much of a stretch that this faded star sees more clearly the galactic sized mess we’ve made of matters. Apart from Antarctica, I don’t suppose there’s any continent free of turmoil but living through Britain’s atrophy is a salutory lesson in the effervescence of hubris.         * true at the time of writing

In Eye in the Sky’s final stanza comes  “…. I can read your mind, I am the maker of rules, Dealing with fools, I can cheat you blind …”

So: prophetic as well as groovy skiing down black runs.

This post began merely to share wonder of the Heavens: the political point which appears inexorably to have risen is purely co-incidental.