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What’s the most amazing thing you have ever seen with your own eyes?

8 years ago by 8mm with 29 comments

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  • zyrthofar
    +10

    The milky way. I went camping two years ago farther from the city, and I could see everything in the night sky. I stayed there just looking up for a while.

    • ClassyCritic
      +2

      There's nothing more amazing than a clear sky. You can see so much away from the city.

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  • Boudicca
    +8

    It's in the ordinary things that the truly amazing resides, an ant carrying a bread crumb ten times its size, big fat drops of rain after a drought, a shy smile.

    In an overstimulated, CGI special effected world, the mundane can be the most beautiful and amazing.

  • Appaloosa
    +7

    I held the hand of my wife's sister as she died. We all watched the monitor as her heartbeat slowed down. We were all together and I suppose this is the most amazing thing I ever saw.

    • Boudicca
      +4

      That gave me goosebumps. That would have to be the most intimate humans could be, standing vigil as a loved one crosses the threshold

      • OldTallGuy
        +4

        I was with both of my parents as they checked out, it's not for the feint of heart.

        • Boudicca
          +4

          No, and not something for everyone to be able to do I would think.

  • 90boss
    +7

    One time camping I swear I saw like 10 shooting stars within 30 seconds. It was unreal.

  • SevenTales
    +7

    Life. I am amazed, each day, at the variety and awesomeness of everything that we are and that surrounds us. There's a lot of the child in me that I lost over the years, but the wonder for the seemingly ordinary, I'm glad I kept.

    • Gozzin (edited 8 years ago)
      +2

      I'm glad you did as well. The first time I saw the mountains of Pennsylvania..I was awestruck! And riding in a small sailboat with friends and seeing a bottle nosed dolphin come up about 10 feet from the boat.

  • DrunkOldMan
    +6

    The miracle of birth, I've been in the trenches 5 times and it still gets me teary everytime.

    • Boudicca
      +4

      I'd have to agree with you on that one except I would have been viewing from a somewhat different angle ;)

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  • Nerdeiro
    +4

    The Antonov AN-225 passing a few meters (at least I think it was a few. The thing is so huge it's hard to tell) above my head when landing at GRU to deliver cargo to the state owned oil company Petrobras.

    That plane is a tribute to both human ingenuity and Soviet brute-force approach to engineering.

    Being under the shadow of that sky monster, with six gigantic turbofans howling at you it's a truly humbling experience.

  • phosphorescent
    +4

    The top of Baldy Peak at Snowbird, Utah. Sure it's a ski resort and in the Rockies so not exactly the most impressive thing in the world, but when I stood up there for a moment I just suddenly realized how vast and varied the US is. Shitty pic.

  • PushPull
    +4

    On the astronomy theme, I have seen a my shadow on the ground being cast by the light of Jupiter behind me. I have also seen the shadow of my hand on a piece of paper being cast by the light of the Milky Way above. Incredible things happen when you get away from the lights of the city and allow yourself to become dark adapted.

  • CrazyDiamond
    +3

    Flying over Greenland on the way to Germany was really pretty.

  • Endymion
    +3

    A whale, actually a family of whales. No matter how many times you see them on T.V, when you seem them out there in the ocean, it's truly a breadth taking experience.

  • Phexous
    +3

    Sitting in a cupola on top of my grandparents house on the top of a mountain in northern Idaho. You look around and you are above everything in the area and there is just no sight like being above all the trees and being able to see everything around you. (Also Idaho is beautiful you just have to go to the right places I recommend checking it out)

  • gabe2068
    +3

    I'm 14 so I am positive this won't be the most amazing thing I ever see but growing up in Houston, I had never really seen the stars. I mean obviously you can always see a few but never many. I would compare it to seeing a couple of grains of sand strewn across black paper. One day my dad and my mom drove out to some remote part of the outskirts of Houston. Very little light pollution. I was in awe at how many stars there actually was. How vast the universe is. It reminded me of how little of a portion of this whole process I am. I mean nothing to the universe. I stared in awe wondering if there was more intelligent life out there, would one of them be doing something similar to me right now? Looking up at the stars and wondering about the universe? I rode home in the back of the truck, even though it is illegal, staring upwards. It was a surreal experience that I experienced alone, which I am thankful for.

  • staxofmax
    +2

    I can't narrow it down to one as I have several experience that re framed my view on life and the universe.

    Seeing the milky way for the first time when backpacking in the remote wilderness in the Pacific Northwest.

    Seeing the aurora borealis while on a business trip to Alaska.

    Seeing the Hale-Bopp comet in 1997. My bedroom window was positioned perfectly so for a about a month when I went to bed the window perfectly framed the comet when looking through it from my bed.

    Seeing Jupiter's moons for the first time when observing it through binoculars.

    The last one is a two parter. Last month I flew from the lower 48 up to Alaska on business. My plane departed Seattle at 9:30 just after sunset and was scheduled to arrive in Fairbanks just after midnight. About an hour until arrival I watched the sun rise in the west as the airplane crossed back over the terminator into daylight. Then 30 minutes after landing I watched the sun set again. So in a four hour period I saw the sun rise and set twice.

    The second part of the flight was right before the second sunrise. The sun was just below the western horizon and casting a vast shadow through the atmosphere. I noticed the shadow was clearly thicker towards the eastern horizon than it was to the west. Then I realized that the difference in the thickness of the shadow was due to the earth's curvature, and if I looked very closely at it I could see the curve of the earth as it fell away from the sunlight.

    In all these experiences I remember the distinct feeling of being imperceptibly small in a vast and incomprehensible universe, and at the same time feeling at home in by place in it.