It makes me think of a common trick in stargazing that is to look at stars with peripheral vision. Fixating them will make them disappear.

That's because the fovea, the "high resolution" part of the eye we use when focusing on some point is entirely made of cone cells, which give you color vision, but are less sensitive, as opposed to rod cells, that make up most of the peripheral vision. In other words, peripheral vision is better in low light situations.