Nova

(The supernova observed from Earth in 1572 was a major event in human thought, because if stars could explode, then they couldn't be eternal lamps, hung out by God.) The cold stars glimmered where they hung in their accustomed places on the underside of heaven. The imperceptible gavotte proceeded up aloft: those little silver lamps, dipping or climbing, went about their business oblivious of human time. A scholar of the firmament, incurious, unthrilled, at ease with the inevitable, the trueness of meridians, stared up, unflinching. The milky smudge of Cassiopeia swam into his lens's narrow field, and our student of the permanent now saw that which he knew he could not see. It caused no greater shock than a snarl of irritation. We always miss the moment. The quiet glory of that tiny cloud of far-off starstuff marked the noiseless passing of some unknowable sun. And though the watcher did not know, he was party, too, to a monumental dying.