The View From Space

Astronauts now see stars and planets from space. Sf writers had previously described them. We will consult Wells, Lewis, Blish and Anderson.

"The sky outside was as black as the darkness within the sphere, but the shape of the open window was marked by an infinite number of stars.
"Those who have only seen the starry sky from the earth cannot imagine its appearance when the vague, half-luminous veil of our air has been withdrawn. The stars we see on earth are the mere scattered survivors that penetrate our misty atmosphere. But now at last I could realise the meaning of the hosts of heaven!"
-HG Wells, The First Men In The Moon (London, 1960), 5, p. 39.

Approaching the Moon, Cavor opens six shutters, blinding Bedford:

"The whole area was moon, a stupendous scimitar of white dawn with its edges hacked out by notches of darkness, the crescent shore of an ebbing tide of darkness, out of which peaks and pinnacles came climbing into the blaze of the sun."
-ibid, 6, p. 43.

We have encountered space as a sea several times before.

In space:

"There was an endless night on one side of the ship and an endless day on the other... In the nights...the stars, thick as daisies on an uncut lawn, reigned perpetually with no cloud, no moon, no sunrise, to dispute their sway. There were planets of unbelievable majesty, and constellations undreamed of: there were celestial sapphires, rubies, emeralds and pin-pricks of burning gold; far out on the left of the picture hung a comet, tiny and remote..."
-CS Lewis, Out Of The Silent Planet IN Lewis, The Cosmic Trilogy (London, 1990), pp. 1-144 AT p. 25.

During the days, Ransom is "...totally immersed in a bath of pure ethereal colour and of unrelenting though unwounding brightness..." and feels "...a new vitality." (p. 26)

Approaching Mars, Blish's Adolph Haertel sees the canals or, at least, the marks that have been interpreted as such.

Going EVA:

"Above [Collie], below him,around him glittered a hugeness of stars."
-Poul Anderson, Twilight World (London, 1984), 8, p. 116.

See also "A Wilderness Of Stars." (Scroll down)

Later, he sees "...a million frosty stars..." (p. 118)

Approaching Mars:

"Mars filled half the sky. When you looked out the ports on that side, the planet's ruddy-amber glow spilled in and tinted faces a strange hue."
-ibid, 9, p. 119.

Collie sees stony hills, iron deserts, polar bogs, equatorial scrub and a huge dust storm: another world.