I was on a UA flight EWR-PVG in whatever name they give business class these days. It was my first time flying to Asia and first time near the north pole. I booked a window seat since I wanted to see what all of that looked like. I have trouble sleeping on planes, so am also looking for various things to pass the time. (In line with some of the other discussions, I also figure that, having chosen the window seat, I should minimize the inconvenience to the aisle seat person by leaving my seat rarely and making my bathroom break (rarely more than one) at the same time as the person in the aisle seat.)

I opened the window shade sometime when we were relatively far north. It wasn't long before the FA told me to close it. Being summer, it was relatively bright out in whatever time zone we might have been at the moment.

I recalled a trick I learned of while talking to Story Musgrave, an astronaut. He talked about how hard it was to see space from the shuttle because the lights in the shuttle are usually on. He'd bring a body bag, duct tape it to one of the port holes, and let his eyes adjust.

I hadn't had the foresight to bring a body bag with me, but did have the blanket. I held that around the window frame, opened the shade, and got no complaints. (On the way back home, there was a break in the clouds at one point so that I could see the Arctic ice pack.)