I've discovered some things in my backyard which are interesting, to say the least. To begin with, I like to sit outside looking at the beautiful California night sky; because the air is very dry here-- it's a desert climate-- I see things that I could never see back East, where the only time the humidity is low is in winter.
It's always fairly mild here, so I can sit out for hours just watching the sky slowly wheel over my head. I've even seen some things that I can't explain, like the white-glowing object that streaked by one night at about 2,000 MPH. I'll expand on that later.
Anyway, I usually sit in a chair with my head tilted back so I can get a good view overhead.
So one night, I'm sitting out as usual, looking up and seeing lots of stars and a few planets, identifying the constellations and such like that, when for a moment I closed my eyes-- they were feeling a bit dry. It was strange...but I could still see stars! Not the same starfield, this was different, but some stars looked just as bright as with eyes open. They stayed stationary when I moved my eyes, so that it looked for all the world that my eyes were open, but that the starfield was a strange one.
I kept my eyes closed, making sure they were closed all the way but not shut tight. When you shut your eyes tightly there's a phenomenon called phosphenes, which are those blobs of color that you see swimming around till your eyes are totally dark-adapted. I wanted to avoid anything like that.
I should say at this point that I have been an amateur astronomer for most of my adult life, and owned a nice telescope which I stupidly sold before moving to California. Why? I have no idea. So I've had some experience with sky viewing.
Anyway, gradually a dark scene unfolded around me. To my right there were some bare trees. I couldn't tell what kind-- just that they were bare. To my left there was a pole of some kind. Maybe a light pole-- who knows. Just a tall-- 50-60' or so-- pole. The rest of the scene featured a sky that went to a horizon that looked forested, a sort of squarish-looking structure to my right, like a flat rooftop or some such. So I'm in a huge clearing, like a meadow, with a low, square structure to my immediate right, a pole to my left and at my right some trees with no leaves. I can't really see the ground as the whole scene is very dark anyway.
The really weird thing is that I have seen that very same place every time since.
Well, maybe not THE really weird thing. OK, so I would sit out every night after that, looking to see that scene "behind" my eyes. Is it all my imagination? Most likely-- right? That's what I thought for a long time. I mean, who "sees" stars when they close their eyes?
To be continued...
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