I saw Orion the other night!
I have not been able to really see the stars since my vision loss 12 years ago. If it's dark enough to see the night sky then I lose my central vision. This is a strange phenomenon that happens to me in the dark. I first noticed it one night when the moon was shining in the window and lighting up a small white rug on the floor. I could see the rug in my peripheral vision, but every time I looked directly at the rug it disappeared from my sight. I amused myself by making a little game of it.
The same thing happens when I look at the night sky. I will notice a twinkle out of the corner of my eye, but when I look at the constellations they disappear. I love the night sky! When we lived in the country with no streetlights to obliterate the sky, the stars seemed so brilliant. I could see Orion from my bed every night. It was familiar and comfortable.
I have gotten used to not seeing the stars anymore, and when we moved into town we couldn't have seen them like that anyway.
But the other night was different. Because the leaves that normally block out the light have fallen off the trees, there was just enough light showing from the buildings behind us that I still had central vision when I looked out the window on my way back to bed from a 5:00 a.m. trip to the washroom. I looked up over the building and there was Orion shining so crisp and brilliant! I hadn't seen it for so long. I actually said, "Hello my friend. I've missed you".
