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Comment by _spduchamp | Hacker News Reader

Several years ago while camping up north, I swam in a lake in the middle of a perfectly clear night and could see the Milky Way like I had never seen before. With stars all around in my visual periphery, and being weightless in a star lit lake, I had the sensation of not looking up at the "dome" of stars, but standing affixed against a watery wall looking out, over, and into the depths of space in front of me. It was like watching out into space from a balcony.

It was a new perspective for me and I wondered if whales ever see the night sky like that.

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Thanks for sharing.

Your comment reminded me of a similar experience I had almost eight years ago. I went camping in the desert with a few friends of mine, and in the evening we slept inside these caves that looked out into sky instead of into the horizon--as in the cave entrance was vertical instead of horizontal.

In the evening, from inside the caves, I laid down and looked up and felt a sensation like the one you're describing--"weightless" is definitely the right word. It felt like I was looking into infinity, a literal ocean of stars. The cave was completely pitch black except for the opening that looked out into the sky. I don't have the right words to describe it, but I felt like I was almost pleasantly "falling" into that opening and out onto the star field, despite literally laying in the dirt in the middle of cave in the middle of nowhere.

I quite literally am not smart enough to conjure up the right words for how I felt--and still feel about, all those years later--but I felt this odd comforting sensation that the universe is much larger than me and here I was just sitting in its cradle.

I have experienced a similar feeling lying quietly on a beach looking up at the stars. Your words describe it better than any other words I've ever read.

Thank you--you're too kind. Yes, this feeling is a strange one, unique and universal all at once.

I wonder why I haven't pursued it again after all these years. It would just require driving a few hours out of town, nothing too crazy. Like another commenter here mentioned, it would be good for all of us, especially we who work in front of screens all day, to do this more often.

EDIT: Your username is excellent haha.

Your story reminded me of this comic, about looking out at the stars. http://www.electricsheepcomix.com/rave/

That hit in the feels. Thanks for sharing.

Fantastic! The sense of dizziness--you don't expect that when you see the night sky but it's a very real feeling.

Some of the strongest and clearest constellations are seasonal. I have a particular fondness for Orion, a winter constellation in the northern hemisphere, and look at it often.

The first time I travelled to the southern hemisphere and looked up to the night sky, it was full of unknown structures - but I also found my old friend Orion - upside-down. I turned my head to get the familiar feeling back.

Obviously, it was not the stars but me that were upside-down - the most definite sign of Earth's shape I have ever seen. And yet, it is hard to grasp. The world looks the same, solid, flat and steady beneath me. It is rare to get a glimpse of the world's three-dimensionality. Usually we live in only 2.5d.

While reading The Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy (Cixin Liu) I practiced looking at the sky in the way you describe, and while stargazing has felt wonderful as long as I can remember, this perspective is particularly so. My mental health has improved since moving back to a rural area where I can see the galaxy, and I doubt I’m alone in that. I hope we can all adjust to living with less light, and less energy consumption in general, for the sake of healthier lives, human and otherwise.

Have to add to this,

Spent time in the remote Australian desert for many weeks, it was the first time I realized that the Earth is the best space ship we could ever hope to have.

I felt the same type of weightlessness and experienced "the dome" for many nights on end. Every night was a wonderful gift.

There is a scene in the film « Immortal Beloved » where a young Beethoven has a similar experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59hhDE9ObxY

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