through a telescope (given to me for my 40th birthday by my wife and daughter).

I shed a tear. I felt as if I saw the moon for real the first time. I was overwhelmed by the confusion that I felt relieved that the moon was real. I know it is real. I can see it every night. But not see-see! This felt different. This felt… More real.

The birthday gift had already overwhelmed me, but this… This experience made me feel deep gratitude that will ripple beyond our mortal coils.

These words describe a similar feeling:

In 2011, on a tour of Mauna Kea’s summit, I looked at Saturn through a large reflecting telescope and it blew my mind.

When you’ve seen a thousand pictures of something, you feel like you’ve seen it before. What I saw through the eyepiece was entirely new. I expected another picture of Saturn, but instead I saw a real object—a small, grey-orange ball, fixed in the center of a perfect, razor-flat ring. I could even sense the empty, airless space around it. It looked impossible. But there it was.

Source: Raptitude - Take The Long View

topic:: [[astronomy]] #biographical