The night sky has always fascinated me, but seeing the Milky Way high up in the mountains for the first time as a child, far away from any light pollution, is just mind blowing. Nowadays, I live in the countryside and would like to get into proper astro photography eventually.
Meanwhile, it is fascinating to see what you can see without special equipment.
Northern Lights
On a rare occasion in 2024 I was able to capture polar lights with my Sony RX100 III (no tripod) during a nightly dog walk. They were only visible with a camera, not the naked eye.
The Full Moon
Here is how you can take a nice photo of the full moon without any fancy camera equipment and without(!) a tripod: DSLR, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6 at 200 mm, 1/200 sec at f/11.
Same image as above, but cropped. Not bad.