Your character, by chance or habit, peers through a telescope. They see something unusual — what is it?

Posted in Dystopian on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 53 stories

“Gods cue ball” by Edward Savage

Submitted to Contest #134

I boarded the train, from Liverpool Street Station to Cambridge at three of the afternoon on a cold but clear skyed Thursday in March, early in the fifth decade of Victoria’s reign, at the behest of my good friend Professor Rupert Armitage, head of the University Observatory. Armitage had invited me to join him and the distinguished astronomer, William Lassell, FRS, FRSE, FRSL, FRAS, at the observatory. Lassell was the recipient of an honorary degree from Cambridge but the elderly gentleman asked, no demanded, to see th...

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“The Young Astronomer” by Cody Cooper

Submitted to Contest #134

“Aiden! It’s getting late! You need to go to bed so you aren’t late for school tomorrow!” Pamela’s voice boomed across the acres of the family ranch backyard. “In a minute, mom! I’m still trying to align this telescope to see if I can chart the trajectory of Jupiter’s moons and calculating the impact of Jupiter’s gravity on them!” Aiden replied without looking up from the eyepiece on his telescope, his ton...

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“Tale of Colliding Scopes” by Kristen Bloom

Submitted to Contest #134

Tale of the Colliding Scopes Why? Why do you taunt me like this? Why do you insist on sparkling in the dead of night? Why are you always there, just out of reach? Are you even real? Do you hear me as I BEG and PLEAD for you to grant my wish? I shake my head and swallow a bucket’s worth of bile. Those darn stars, so far away. So tantalizingly beautiful that it almost hides their evil nature. Almost. Their light might have blinded the other fools on Earth, but not me. I will never allow myself to be fo...

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“The World Reflected Back” by Rebecca Stack

Submitted to Contest #134

Something is compelling her to look through her telescope that night at this exact moment though she has no idea what. Expecting to see the usual night sky she always sees, our own Milky Way. Nothing could of prepare her for what was about to happen. As she leaned towards the eye piece and pulled herself close, she felt her essence leave her body shoot through the telescope into the night sky and reflect back down in to the World below. `How very odd’ she thinks to herself as she moves her head back away from her telescope an...

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“The First Man” by Mark Wambugu

Submitted to Contest #134

*Incoming Transmission* Hello? Hello? I hope this thing is on. Sorry about the noise. I'll try to be quick. One of my ancestors was the first man in space. Do you know how big of a deal that is? First man in space! He was incredible. An actual legend. But then another man was shot into the great beyond after him and set foot on the moon. This is the man most people remember. I think it's unfair. My name is Yuri. Or should I say it was? I doubt that I'll be alive when you receive this message. I was named after the first man. The first crea...

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“The Condo” by Susan Lynn Zenker

Submitted to Contest #134

Mason Huxley took Amy Armstrong by the hand and dragged her to his fifth-floor living room picture window. He extended his arms out dramatically toward the shiny, orange device which pointed to something of interest beyond the glass. “Ta-da! May I present my Celestron NexStar 8SE! With an eight-inch aperture and 81 times magnification, isn’t it a beauty? Plus, it’s got a database of 40,000 celestial objects it locates and tracks for you.”“Slick as a pig’s tongue!” Amy exclaimed. “Love it!”“Eighty-one times magnification isn’t all that sharp....

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“A Blink on Venus” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #134

The First Event Henry Hopper looked up at the star-like planet as he did most nights through the telescope that could be considered a companion. What he saw on this night was not the usual, but the unbelievable. There was a blink on Venus. That was the best term that the astronomer could come up with for what he had seen. It was like the planet was a giant eye, partially opening up to be seen like it never had before. Then the opening closed. He knew from prior experience when he presented papers on Venus at ...

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“A Different Lens” by Martha Sanipe

Submitted to Contest #134

Pisa, June 1609Orazio looked around the cluttered studio, unable to identify many of the objects within it. Diagrams of heavenly orbs, a metal triangle inscribed with figures, large tomes on the sciences and mathematics, and strange objects whose function he couldn’t begin to guess at. He shook his head, half smiling, remembering his few childhood encounters with the fascinating man who lived here. The professor was just a year his junior; they’d both grown up here in Tuscany. Though they’d never been close acquaintances, they’d known many o...

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“Telescopic sight” by Marty B

Submitted to Contest #134

-violent themes- Robert worried he could never really know what someone else was going to do. How can he know their intent, know their heart? He was a spotter for a sniper team. His role is to see people, to know whether they mean harm to the soldiers and facilities he watches over. He views someone's actions, and he makes assumptions. What if he misses something? Robert joined the Army to make the world a better place. He saw the world in black and white, good or bad. That he ended up as part of an Army sniper team w...

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“The Walters Telescope” by Crystal Bass

Submitted to Contest #134

What if there were spiders or scorpions under the boxes?? There was no way I wanted to be the one to find out. I was very interested in searching through the valley of boxes that lined the walls of my grandpas attic. There was were boxes of all sizes and shapes. Red boxes, blue boxes, small boxes, large boxes, boxes with labels and boxes without. But the box that caught my attention the most was a tall slender box in the corner. It had Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) imprinted on the box. On the left side, a shipping label read: ...

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“1866” by Ray Tennison

Submitted to Contest #134

‘And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on that great Day’ - Jude 1:6 There comes a point when you dream about it, when the drill of the memories infect your mind when you sleep, piercing down through the skull and weaves into all of what the mind wants. The urge to look through it but in the end of these dreams, I always burn them. I burn every telescope before I can look through it and I then awake. However, in wak...

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“The Telescope” by Allya Nosmada

Submitted to Contest #134

“Happy Birthday, Simon!”The young boy did not wait another second before he tore off the wrapping paper on the large gift his mother had set before him. “Ooh, cool!” he exclaimed. “A telescope!”He soon forgot about the cake, the other presents, even his mother who had gifted him the object of his fascination. He opened the box and ran upstairs, carrying the telescope piece by piece to his room. He laid everything out on the floor and examined the pieces. Consulting the instructions periodically, Simon managed to assemble the instrument ...

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“I Think They’ll Like Each Other ” by Alonae Phillips

Submitted to Contest #134

“When’s the last time you saw Mr. Jackson?” “Probably last week, I dropped some meals off at the door and he waved through the window.” Mom says while gesturing wildly with her hands. The fork she is holding flings spaghetti sauce onto the table right in front of me. The sauce isn't red like it supposed to be. It's brown, she put too much Italian seasoning again; it tastes kind of like eating a leaf.“I took him to get vaccinated last month,” dad says with a chuckle. “I think at this point he's just hoping that you don't leave food at th...

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“The Pink Moon's Secret” by Halia Hassan

Submitted to Contest #134

Bam! Luella slams her cafeteria tray down on the table with an angry look on her face. She slumps in her chair and looks at me. “You will not believe this! Jayden said the super pink moon is lame.” To be fair, Jayden is a nine-year-old boy whose only concern is expanding his house on Minecraft but I keep my mouth shut and let Luella vent about her brother. “And when I tried explaining why it’s happening to the little twerp, he just rolled his eyes! This is important stuff, Harlow. I mean the moon is going the closest it can to Earth in...

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“A New Hope” by Ray O'Neal

Submitted to Contest #134

Sam had always been a good student in school. In science class he got an assignment to do an essay. It was to be over the solar system. So Sam being the good student that he was he got on his computer to do his work. He got to looking up all the information he could about our solar system. While he was looking at the information about our solar system he came across a link. He clicked on it and it just happened to be a satellite that had a telescope on it. Like most young kids do Sam got distracted and was just viewing the different ...

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Your character, by chance or habit, peers through a telescope. They see something unusual — what is it?

Submissions are closed

✍️ 53 stories

“Gods cue ball” by Edward Savage

“The Young Astronomer” by Cody Cooper

“Tale of Colliding Scopes” by Kristen Bloom

“The World Reflected Back” by Rebecca Stack

“The First Man” by Mark Wambugu

“The Condo” by Susan Lynn Zenker

“A Blink on Venus” by John Steckley

“A Different Lens” by Martha Sanipe

“Telescopic sight” by Marty B

“The Walters Telescope” by Crystal Bass

“1866” by Ray Tennison

“The Telescope” by Allya Nosmada

“I Think They’ll Like Each Other ” by Alonae Phillips

“The Pink Moon's Secret” by Halia Hassan

“A New Hope” by Ray O'Neal

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story beyond our own world.

Write about a character who has a ‘hot and cold’ personality — or is affected by someone like this.

End your story with a character looking out on a new horizon.

Write from the POV of someone, or something, that experiences gravity differently.

Contest #134

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

223

Contest entries

128

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: