I stood out during the nighttime for the first time. I'd been outside all right, but not for long - never long enough for my eyes to adjust enough to really see the stars.
I found Jupiter easily, but had to pull out a compass to find the Little Dipper as half of its stars weren't visible and I only had a vague idea which way North was (that drives me nuts, not knowing North).
The weirdest thing was the twinkling. There is some real twinkle, twinkle little star going on here. I know that the earth's atmosphere causes the winking out which we call "twinkling" but I never quite noticed it like this in the North.
Quite honestly I had a disconcerting moment once my eyes adjusted because my first thought was, "Those can't all be satellites." The whole sky kept blinking and winking and twinkling at me; once I got used to it I thought it was cool, but things that are that different are definitely weird at first.
Looper Faith here! It's funny you're saying that. I stayed in Fort Wayne on the way from Louisiana to New York, and I'd walk outside at night and be utterly amazed. I'd noticed it in when I lived briefly in Ohio, but had so many new things, I had forgotten how different the stars were. I'd call my husband at night, in awe, talking about how incredibly cool the sky was. To see stars so bright and just... hanging there - it was amazing to me, and so very weird at first as well.
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