I’ve witnessed ball lightning twice in my life. None of the crazy UFO style stuff, both cases the lightning was arching between clouds and just sort of balled up and hovered there for a few seconds before fizzling out.
A little more repeatable, I once stopped in the middle of nowhere in west Oregon at 2am. We pulled over on some rural road, turned off all the lights and just looked at the sky. It was the first time I’d ever been somewhere I couldn’t at least see light pollution on the horizon. I grew up in a rural area, I’d always shown off the stars you could see out there, but the awe I felt in that perfect darkness seeing more stars than I’d ever managed before has actually soured my love of the sky. The sky at home looked so dull after that. I live in the city now and rarely see any stars, somehow I don’t mind.
Thank you for reminding me that I love living in Western Oregon. It’s fucking beautiful here.
Total solar eclipse. I’ve seen a few. There is something so strange about the omnipresent sun you have lived with your whole life suddenly be gone and there is a black space that you can look at with your eyes where the sky used to be and everything is dark like the night. On a human level I’d image it’s the closest thing I’ll get to seeing the Earth from space. Once you see it you will absolutely understand why older civilizations wouldn’t shut up about it. We understand almost everything about when it will happen and what it is but the experience you can never understand. If you live less than 6-8 hours away from a place you can see a total eclipse do it. An eclipse with glasses is OK but it is a million times more impactful looking at total blackness where the sun once was with your own eyes.
Some shit I’ve seen scuba diving. The halocline where fresh water sits on top of salt water. When you disturb it, it gets all swirly and trippy looking.
Deep in the outback, there are more stars than you can imagine. The soil is so red.
Driving along the highway, seeing a single pair of headlights on the horizon for twenty minutes, combined with the dust and bug reflections in your headlights, and the sheer remoteness of it all, does things with your mind.
The grand canyon. How is it possible to see so much all at once?
When I was a kid, my stepdad set up a telescope so I could see Haley’s comet in all its glory. I’ll almost certainly be dead by the time it’s back in 2061.
