Thread: Would greatly appreciate answers! :)

This post is rather out of place on here, but I feel as if I might find some reasonable explanations!
As crazy as this may sound, I've been seeing what appears to be "molecules" in the air, and this typically only happens when I'm in sunlight.
I'll be sitting outside reading, and in my peripheral I'll see tiny orb-like dots rapidly flowing through the air. If I look up at the sky, they become
even more clear and there are thousands of them, some moving very rapidly, others not as much, and slightly ranging in size. They are not floaters,
I am absolutely positive of that. I am by no means seeing anything internal, it is all very much so external. I was just wondering if anyone could provide
me with a LOGICAL explanation of this. I've found a vast amount of forums dedicated to this on other sites, but they are mostly either Wiccan sites or
forums with about of people giving "ME TOO!" replies. So please, can anyone help?
Thank you

Originally Posted by ma1

This post is rather out of place on here, but I feel as if I might find some reasonable explanations!
As crazy as this may sound, I've been seeing what appears to be "molecules" in the air, and this typically only happens when I'm in sunlight.
I'll be sitting outside reading, and in my peripheral I'll see tiny orb-like dots rapidly flowing through the air. If I look up at the sky, they become
even more clear and there are thousands of them, some moving very rapidly, others not as much, and slightly ranging in size. They are not floaters,
I am absolutely positive of that. I am by no means seeing anything internal, it is all very much so external. I was just wondering if anyone could provide
me with a LOGICAL explanation of this. I've found a vast amount of forums dedicated to this on other sites, but they are mostly either Wiccan sites or
forums with about of people giving "ME TOO!" replies. So please, can anyone help?
Thank you

See your doctor. If you are seeing these artifacts on a regular, continuous basis, and it gets worse in sunlight, then this might be a sign of pathological changes in the eyes' retina. Definitely something to get checked out.

Sounds a bit like my migraines...

Actually I think it's normal. I have seen a similar phenomena when searching for Iridium flares in a bright blue daytime sky. I am searching for details of the phenomena in the eye-brain system literature, but can't quite figure out what to call it for an efficient search.
I know quite a bit about the eye-brain system from pervious research, but have not run across a description of this.

I suspect it's noise from overloand of the retinal rods and comes being interpreted by the brain as motion artifacts.

There's a lot of filtering that goes on before the signal from the rods and cones even gets to the brain, and the brain tries to make sense of it.

For a fun examination of the system, see this. Take some time to see how much funny stuff happens.

Optical Illusions and Visual Phenomena

Funny stuff happens

Here's a long, but very good read about the system. I'm bookmaring this puppy, and will reread it a few times to let it sink in.

Eye, Brain, and Vision

By pure concidencw there's a fascinating show about the eye brain system to Nat Geo channel called "Brain Games" and the episode I'm watching is called "Watch This!"

I'll try and keep an eye out (hahahahaha) for a replay sometime in the future.

Or turn it on now, there's 40 minutes left...

Aha!!!

Blue field entoptic phenomenon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The blue field entoptic phenomenon or Scheerer's phenomenon (after the German ophthalmologist Richard Scheerer, who first drew clinical attention to it in 1924[1]) is the appearance of tiny bright dots (called "blue-sky sprites") moving quickly along squiggly lines in the visual field, especially when looking into bright blue light (such as the sky).[2] This is a normal effect that can be perceived by almost everybody. The dots are white blood cells in the capillaries in front of the retina of the eye, near the macula.[3]

Blue light (optimal wavelength: 430 nm) is well absorbed by the red blood cells that fill the capillaries. The eye and brain "edit out" the shadow lines of the capillaries, partially by dark adaptation of the photoreceptors lying beneath the capillaries. The white blood cells, which are much rarer than the red ones and do not absorb blue light well, create gaps in the blood column, and these gaps appear as bright dots. They won't appear at the very center of the visual field, because there are no blood vessels in the fovea. The effect is rather weak, and many people don't notice it at all. It is strongest when looking at a smooth blue surface. Some times worm like objects can also be seen floating in front of the visual.

BTW, ma1, thanks for an interesting question that helped me learn more about a subject I've studied a lot already!

Really a shame, I did all that research (and am grateful for the knowledge I gained) and the OP never showed up again. Oh well, at least I got something out of it...

I'll thank you. Had posted about this but got "see a doctor" responses only.

In my case, the symptom has been with me since I first noticed it around age 4, and I've had no vision problems besides mild nearsightedness in the 36 years since. The condition is rather like having gum stuck to the underside of every restaurant table you sit at - everybody has this but few notice it.

Actually what "I have" is a related pseudophosphene, called "seeing snow". This spans the entire visual field as millions of rapidly blipping dots, each as small as one can possibly see. I guess this is simply the awareness of one's own retinal nerves firing. Overall effect is smooth, like the fine grain of a high resolution monitor showing grey. Blue-sky sprites appear relatively enormous, composed of many "snow-blips" or "pixels".

Originally Posted by ma1

This post is rather out of place on here, but I feel as if I might find some reasonable explanations!
As crazy as this may sound, I've been seeing what appears to be "molecules" in the air, and this typically only happens when I'm in sunlight.
I'll be sitting outside reading, and in my peripheral I'll see tiny orb-like dots rapidly flowing through the air. If I look up at the sky, they become
even more clear and there are thousands of them, some moving very rapidly, others not as much, and slightly ranging in size. They are not floaters,
I am absolutely positive of that. I am by no means seeing anything internal, it is all very much so external. I was just wondering if anyone could provide
me with a LOGICAL explanation of this. I've found a vast amount of forums dedicated to this on other sites, but they are mostly either Wiccan sites or
forums with about of people giving "ME TOO!" replies. So please, can anyone help?
Thank you

You are seeing the byte resolution limit of the human visual field. As well, there are most likely some small phosgenes jumping around from your visual cortex.

I've had no vision problems besides mild nearsightedness in the 36 years since

If it were me, I'd make sure the optometrist used every single one of those fancy gadgets every time I got my eyes tested.

I got a hell of a shock when I told my obstetrician that I had these episodes of 'snow' or 'flashes' or whatever. I was about the size of a moderate family residence at the time, seemed to be an elephant pregnancy. He blithely laughed it off as just bits of retina floating off into the fluid in the eyeball.

30 years later I'm reassured that it hasn't happened very often since and it doesn't seem to have affected my eyes at all. But I'm still careful to ensure every single test is done on my eyes whenever I go in for a check-up.