The only other sky events are alignment of the planets, some visible at dawn, others at dusk/night. A meteor fly by. Leonid meteor shower. A comet too far away to see with the naked eye. They are all kind of ho-hum to the casual observer. But, a solar flare offers Arora Borealis around the globe, disrupted communications ... and I agree, no way Q could have predicted a massive solar flare 3+ years in advance.