A stunningly beautiful quote from Yann Martel, sent to me by a satellite engineer who loves the sky:
"If you’ve never been, the south of Saskatchewan is so flat the horizon is perceptibly round. Above you, during the day, lords an immense dome of sky so empty it feels like a fullness, with clouds the size of mountains, the sun but a small disk, and a depth of colour that is often chalk blue, oh so chalk blue.
...
"At night this reassuring curtain of blue is pulled away and you realize where you really are: at infinity’s doorstep. A plain is what a mountain aims to be: the closest you can come to being in outer space while yet having your feet on this planet."
I really hope to get out to Grasslands Nat'l Park this week and appreciate infinity's doorstep, despite smoke and satellites trying to take that away.
The world would be a much better place if everyone had easy access to infinity's doorstep, to realize how small we are, how unique and fragile our pale blue dot is.
You don't need a trip on a billionaire's rocket to get the "overview effect." You can do it by finding dark sky access, which is becoming harder and harder to get, partially due to billionaires' rockets.
Where is the best, most incredible, most perspective-shattering night sky that you've ever seen?
For me, it was the Tekapo dark sky reserve in New Zealand a few months ago (I got up at 1am both nights I was there specifically so I could get some mostly satellite-free skies to enjoy).
Second place: Mojave desert many years ago (before megaconstellations) or winter skies about an hour outside Regina, when the nights are long and there are no sunlit satellites due to geometry.
Oh I should add to my own personal list: the multiple aurora shows over the past couple of years that I've been able to see from my own house! May 2024 and especially November 2025 were completely mind-blowing.
I found myself joyously whooping and yelling at the sky. I kept thinking of the Cree name for a really active aurora show, cı̂payak kâ-nı̂mihitocik, which translates to "the ancestors are dancing". It was truly an emotionally powerful event to bear witness to.
I am TOTALLY enjoying reading all these stories of awe and wonder as we get to gaze over "infinity's doorstep" with our own eyes.
This is what I am fighting for! This is what I want everyone to be able to do! It often feels like nobody cares about losing the sky, so reading how much it means to lots of people is incredibly energizing. Thank you, keep the stories coming.
@sundogplanets I spent a week at Wadi Rum about 25 years ago and it was literally eye-opening. Living in Bavaria we still have areas with less light pollution, but standing in the desert in absolute silence and seeing what people saw thousands of years ago had a profound effect.
I was really hoping this would be the case when I was in Death Valley, but the light is definitely creeping too.
@sundogplanets I fondly remember my last 'dark sky' experience. It was on a horse pack trip in the Washington State Cascades. I got up in the middle of the night to look for a tree that needed watering. There was no moon and the Milky Way was glorious. It was hard to go back to the tent to sleep.
Aug 9, 2026, 10:07 PM@sundogplanets I remember, as a child, lying down on the ground at night, looking up and it changing my perception of gravity. The sensation stopped being looking "up" and became looking out. Felt like you could fall into the sky forever.
Even during daytime I can still get that sensation a bit if I lie like that. Once you've felt it, it stays with you. Feels important that people still get to have that.
I totally get this! You've reminded me of a moment I had as a child, looking up at the night sky. I was stood on an old log and, as I looked, I suddenly felt as though I was going to fall into it and had to hold onto my mum next to me. It was an amazing moment. (And thank you for reminding me of it! 🤗)
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@grb090423 @fluffgar Thank you both. Reminds me of my childhood, too. This perspective change from looking up to the feeling of falling in, like I could fly. My body became part, with no more borders. No idea where the cosmos ends or my body begins.
Becoming small and all at one moment.
A similar feeling like in nature, climbing up a mountain to the top, or losing yourself in tiny moss forests.
Thanks for reminding me!
Or by using the likes of Google Earth. That did it for me back in the early 2000s when it was a desktop application.
@sundogplanets I did a talk about finding optimism in difficult times last week and literally used that example of looking up at the stars in the night sky. I guess I’m gonna have to find a new one…
@emmadavidson There are times of night in the wintertime when you can't see any satellites... but yeah. The billionaires have taken that away from us.
Aug 9, 2026, 10:45 PMI used to head up north to the top end every winter and get a dose of bush and sky. So much light from the stars, and all the different colours. Then you'd hear stories about Indigenous folks explaining why one star was a different colour to the others.
For thousands of years humans have read the sky at night in such amazing detail, and today we can barely even remember to look up.
@sundogplanets I support this movement. Give everyone the chance to see something clearly in the night sky with their own eyes and it can change perception profoundly. I remember the first time I saw Saturn with my own telescope. It cements how tiny we are.
@sundogplanets We, the non-billionaires with our Stargazer Steve telescopes+ know. Billionaires know. They just don't give a damn.
I was 4 yrs old when I saw the Morning Star (and was told it was Venus) through my 13 year-old cousin's handmade telescope. I fell in love faded decades and decades ago.
I still have 2 pair of ancient binoculars I use to view Jupiter & some moons and Saturn & some moons. It's lovely and I'm on the edge of a city in PA.
Still trying to enjoy it while I can.
@sundogplanets I still remember the first time I was out of sight of land on a boat at night. Utterly mesmerising, laying on the deck, looking up
@sundogplanets We used to live in SW Colorado at 7200 feet altitude. The night skies were incredible. You could read by the full moon and it felt like you could touch the stars, they seemed so close.
@MFennVT @sundogplanets That's where I am right now, between Bayfield and Pagosa Springs, on a ranch surrounded by the San Juan National Forest. On clear nights the Milky Way is breathtaking.
@bruceturner @sundogplanets Cool! We used to live between Pagosa and Chama. Agreed on the Milky Way.
@sundogplanets It was in a state park in Nevada where we were climbing. It was about 50 miles east of the California border. I can’t remember the name of it, but it was so dark that the few clouds that were there were not backlit from any surface lights and they looked like dark nebula against the star field. It was also disorienting as it was hard to find the constellations with such a rich star field. I only had a 4” scope with me, but the views were awesome.
@sundogplanets On the rocks at the edge of Bonne Bay, Newfoundland (a fjord in Gros Morne National Park). A few village lights, but a night so clear that just turning away was enough. Lying on my back with the ocean lapping a cobble beach a few metres away, and it felt like I was pressed to the very thin skin of a whirling planet with my face almost in the stars. It almost felt like I could slip off.
@sundogplanets Piper's Cove in CB the night of 9/11. Remote area so dark sky but that night no planes so just stars. Beautiful!
@sundogplanets
Onaping lake, about an hour from Sudbury, ontario. At a log cottage you need a boat to get to.
Okavango Delta on safari. Truly stunning
@sundogplanets As a kid (many years ago now) living in a large town, I remember being sceptical about seeing the Milky Way by eye. My siblings would try to point it out but I could not discern anything significant.
It was only when camping in the countryside that I understood, and appreciated, the incredible sight they were trying to point out.
It is unsurprising if someone stuck in a slightly built up area has a lack of appreciation of this beauty.
And what we're losing with starlink.
@sundogplanets western New Mexico, the Milky Way cast shadows
@sundogplanets I grew up in the 60s/70s on a farm in southern Manitoba. I just thought seeing stars at night was a normal thing that I’d have for the rest of my life. I do remember when I was around 5 my mom was taking care of my city cousins and she stopped the car on the way back to the farm so they could see the stars. Jesus, I thought, what’s the big deal! Thanks for asking, I had not thought of that in ages.
@KarenKeiller @sundogplanets Ditto! For 2 weeks every summer, parents would rent the Scout cabin at Delta Beach. Running through the fish flies to use the outdoor biffy was a treat. But no street lighting for miles. Every night was a free sky show. The whole damn family was on the beach to try to see Sputnik in the ‘50s. Now I must drive to the community pasture to get an approximation of a dark sky. Amazing how far the glow firm Winnipeg can be seen.
@sundogplanets Karoo and Cedarberg in South Africa are pretty special. I did a white water rafting trip once and we passed the South African Observatory on the way to the starting point.
Aug 10, 2026, 12:40 AM@sundogplanets I haven't seen it personally, but I'm told the view from Centauri Epsilon VI is second to none.
@sundogplanets the mountains near the New Mexico-Arizona border on US 60, near the VLA. I've spent quite a few nights in and around that area of western New Mexico.
When I was 18 in 2001, I did a trip down the Salt River canyon in eastern Arizona. I was driving back home late at night after the trip coming through the mountains in New Mexico west of the VLA (near Pie Town). At some point, I realized the sky in front of me was pink. It was the first time I ever saw an aurora.
@sundogplanets when I got my first glasses!
Aug 10, 2026, 12:46 AM@sundogplanets Near Taos, NM. Brought to mind a verse in the old testament, about descendants, and I'm not even religious.
Your photos blew *our* minds, and we weren't even there. The actual experience must have been incredible 🤯
Aug 10, 2026, 1:11 AM
@sundogplanets ... you speak Cree (as in not the silicon-carbide UV LED manufacturer) ?!? Amazing ...
@otte_homan I definitely don't speak Cree! I listen to the Cree knowledge keepers who are generous enough to share, and I try to respectfully share what I have learned.
@sundogplanets oh i can relate to this. 2004. Syncrude Aurora on night shift. sitting outside watching the green/yellow/ mild red aurora appear three dimensional and so close. all around me. amazing.
@sundogplanets
Best night sky I remember was when I was young, falling asleep with the curtains open, while living up in the Rockies of BC . We lived far from cities back in the very early 1960s
Aug 10, 2026, 4:08 AMAs a city kid (grade 2?) with strict bedtime every day including weekends, I went on a weekend trip with school kids, probably first time away from family. Went to a ski resort probably south of Montreal. One night, stepped outside during evening activities and saw the sky, wow. It was probably still close enough to the city to get some atmosphere-reflected light, but still magnificent compared to anything I had ever seen before.
"Infinity's doorstep"... This is where I'd love to be.
I need to find one. But in the south east of a crowded England, I think it's going to be difficult.
I'll need to travel. Maybe up to the dark sky reserve in Northumberland 🤔 (it's not flat though.)
@sundogplanets
WInd River Range, WY, about 15 years ago during the Perseids. Not just seeing the meteors over from an elevation of 10,000 ft but seeing a bright light appear atop the nearby ridge and thinking someone lit a bonfire up there. No, it was Jupiter rising. The ridge was the Continental Divide, about 5 miles away.
2nd place was flying home for Xmas c. 1988 and stepping out the airport doors in IDA and seeing the Milky Way. Wow, not something I'd ever see at grad school in Houston.
@sundogplanets best sky night for sheer awe was in New Zealand, near the same spot. Spouse is a biologist studying cicadas and we were very late heading to Twizel, the kids asleep in the back. Pulled off at Lake Pukaki opened the sun roof and stood looking out in absolute awe and wonder.
1991 at UMBS in Pellston MI, US, was fantastic for aurora activity. We got very little sleep, and were led to think it was always this. Only much later did I realize how special that summer was.
@sundogplanets the one I cherish the most (and that also makes me sad coz light pollution's getting worse here) is one with my ~5yr-old-at-the-time son. It's a clear dark october night, we just got home, get out the car, son says:
"Dad look, so many stars!"
"Wow yeah!"
Son: "Is that Jupiter?"
"Mm, could be, yes. See that faint mist? That's the MW, our galaxy"
"WOW!"
... 5 seconds of awe ...
"Dad?"
(also absorbed) "Yes?"
"And where's Mario's galaxy?"
🙃
@sundogplanets I posted in a different comment about seeing the clouds in the Milky Way from a dark sky site in Indiana, but my second favorite would absolutely be when we got engaged under the Perseids on Natural Bridge.
We were camping and had trouble finding a place with visible sky thriugh the canopy. Finally decided to go to Natural Bridge to watch. Unfortunately thick fog rolled in around evening. We hiked anyway, and the bridge got us just above the cloud cover into the clear.
@sundogplanets
When I was 12 I borrowed my brother's 8x30 bird watching binoculars and looked at the Milky Way in Cygnus and Vulpecula. Oh so many stars, I wanted to get to get to know them all, to become familiar with each one of them. Fortunately the local library was on my walk to school and, being the early '70s it had lots of books on astronomy. I became familiar with only some of those stars (mostly the variable stars). But my career in computing grew out of the attempt.
@sundogplanets Camping in Forillon National Park (Quebec, across from Gaspe). The night sky was a carpet of stars. The Milky Way... I had no idea.
@sundogplanets I grew up in New York City in the ‘60s/‘70s where there’s way too much light to see the sky, but my family had a summer house in upstate New York in the country. I’d lay out on the grass at night and let my eyes adapt to the total darkness and it was just magical.
@sundogplanets West Texas, Big Bend National Park.
Seeing the Emu across the Milky Way in the bush in Western Australia.
North shore of Jamaica after a huge storm that had cleared the sky and knocked out all the power in sight.
Unbelievable Milky Way and night birds
until a resort got their generator going and turned up the speakers, anyway
@sundogplanets Prince Edward Island with three college friends. Lying with heads together watching the Perseids meteor shower. “There’s one, there’s one, ….” And, at one point, all four of us together, “There’s one!”
Outback Australian skies are always amazing.
One trip, a mate's young son (under 5)was terrified—we didn't live in the city and he'd seen stars, but never *SO MANY*!
@sundogplanets Toronto, August 14, 2003: first night of the blackout. Complete darkness and sparkling night sky
Seeing the auroras down here was amazing. I will always wonder what our ancestors thought when they saw it.
Also, the night sky down at the beach - you can see the Milky Way. For years I didn't even realize what I was seeing, I kept thinking it was really high wispy clouds, LOL. A very WHOA moment when I realized it.
@dpnash @sundogplanets and most children in the developed world have never seen such a sky. Hell, most people in the developed world will die without ever having seen such a sky.
And that's a tragedy.