I finally know what 'sky squiggles' are!

Posted by Random Terrain, 14 January 2009 · 233 views

Personal_Stuff

I have been wondering since I was a kid about the hundreds or thousands of semi-invisible 'sky sperm' or 'sky tadpoles' or 'sky squiggles' that you see swimming around in front of your eyes if you stare at a bright blue sky. Some know-it-all nitwits try to tell you that you are simply seeing floaters (what some people might call 'sky amoebas' or 'sky worms') and that it couldn't possibly be anything else, but thanks to the Internet, I found out that it's called blue field entoptic phenomenon where you're seeing your own white blood cells:

http://en.wikipedia....ptic_phenomenon

It's nice to finally know the truth.

[I posted this in the AtariAge forums months ago, but I'm putting it in my blog so people who aren't AtariAge members can read it.]

Random Terrain
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Christophero Sly
Jan 14 2009 9:36 PM

I always wondered what I was seeing. Thanks for the info.

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Herbarius
Jun 10 2009 12:06 PM

From the wikipedia article you posted:

Quote

Scheerer's phenomenon should not be confused with "floaters" (muscae volitantes).

Please click on the link for "floaters", are you sure, you don't mean those?

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Random Terrain
Jun 10 2009 12:23 PM

Herbarius, on Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:06 PM, said:

Please click on the link for "floaters", are you sure, you don't mean those?

Floaters move slowly and look like amoeba. What I'm talking about is exactly what I posted.

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Herbarius
Jun 10 2009 1:32 PM

Oh, sorry somehow I didn't see you already wrote that "some people will try to tell you it's floaters", I apologize, I surely didn't want to nitpick. (Especially because I usually get annoyed myself if people don't read the whole text I wrote :ponder:

)

I'm not sure if I ever have noticed the Blue field entoptic phenomenon, can you instruct me on how to provoke it? (I mean, an easier method than "The patient is alternatingly shown blue light and a computer generated picture of moving dots.") Just staring into a blue sky? What do I have to pay attention to?

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Random Terrain
Jun 10 2009 1:44 PM

Herbarius, on Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:32 PM, said:

I'm not sure if I ever have noticed the Blue field entoptic phenomenon, can you instruct me on how to provoke it? Just staring into a blue sky? What do I have to pay attention to?

On a bright sunny day, stare at the sky (not at the sun). After your eyes adjust, ignore any floaters that might be in the way and look for tiny fast moving see-through tadpoles. After you know what to look for, you should see a bunch of them darting in front of your eyes faster than cars on the freeway.