There isn't actually many results at all for that exact phrase, as far as I can see. It looks likely that it's a modification of "he stared through the window a

There isn't actually many results at all for that exact phrase, as far as I can see. It looks likely that it's a modification of "he stared through the window at the stars", which doesn't occur much more often, but did appear in A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay.