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  • Prof. Sam Lawlersundogplanets@mastodon.social
    Aug 10, 2026, 12:54 AM

    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.

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  • Prof. Sam Lawlersundogplanets@mastodon.social
    Aug 10, 2026, 3:21 AM

    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.

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  • Prof. Sam Lawlersundogplanets@mastodon.social
    Aug 10, 2026, 3:02 AM

    @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.

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  • canadianglen 🇨🇦canadianglen@thecanadian.social
    Aug 10, 2026, 1:45 AM

    @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.

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  • TrueNorthSpice 🇨🇦TrueNorthSpice@mastodon.world
    Aug 10, 2026, 3:28 AM

    @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

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  • bjb :devuannew: :emacs:bjb@fosstodon.org
    Aug 10, 2026, 4:08 AM

    @sundogplanets

    As 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.

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  • Eyegrb090423@mastodon.social
    Aug 10, 2026, 5:25 AM

    @sundogplanets

    "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.)

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  • Roadskater, Ph.D.roadskater@mastodon.social
    Aug 10, 2026, 6:11 AM

    @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.

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  • IcooIeyIcooIey@mastodon.green
    Aug 10, 2026, 9:42 AM

    @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.

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  • V Martínsharponlooker@mastodon.social
    Aug 10, 2026, 11:25 AM

    @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?"
    🙃

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  • ArtemisArtemis201@mstdn.social
    Aug 10, 2026, 3:33 AM

    @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.

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  • Tristram Brelstafftristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz
    Aug 10, 2026, 9:33 AM

    @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.

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