The Blue of the Far Distance

I looked out towards the stars ever since I remember.

I can barely name a few constellations and sometimes I confuse satellites for the

celestial bodies. Stargazing brought me comfort whenever life felt too narrow, too grey. I believe it to be a natural human act to look up and not down while seeking answers, while wondering or looking for distance. Yet the starry nights are disappearing due to the highest and growing levels of light pollution - a symptom of the era of capitalism.

Stargazing is inherently escapist and escapism is the main lead I follow throughout this story. Positive escapism is a thread where my fascination meets with the ones of the stargazers I come across in this journey.

There is a man who built a planetarium in his living room in order to keep sane during his son's deadly illness. An astrophotographer who through his observations of the sky discovered over hundred planetoids. The observatory club of retired men in one of the most light polluted city in the world, who regardless of the light conditions meet every Friday to look through the telescope.

"Finding this place is just like stargazing. You can look up once or twice and all you see is some splashed stars and not much else, but once you start really looking, really paying careful attention, you discover some things that are hidden, things that are truly special, maybe the things that nobody has ever seen before.

This place is exactly like this"

"The blue of the far distance" is a constellation of stargazers, of darknesses and surreal landscapes, of ancient orreries and universes in a human scales, a clash between mundane and sublime.