parent
  • 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.