I like it that you grabbed the hand of your helper, that probably stabilised the connection.

In the past I often identified going beyond my ability to see something and only have mental contact with someone with going beyond my usual capabilities. In my case I would go to a "non-space" where all that existed was me and the connection to the other, no dimension, no space, no vision, just a nothing. Don't imagine a void, because that's not what I mean. You cannot imagine it. There was nothing to be seen and no observer, but a form of undefined separation. Funnily enough I'd say it would have a color resembling an afterimage red/orange.

In hindsight this could have been entering a body with not even the 1st chakra fully active - not feeling of having a body of your own - or the 2nd chakra - perceiving space. In my experience more activity in the 3rd and 4th chakras is required (in combination with the 6th) to even render a picture in any body. When I had the 1st, 2nd and 3rd chakras of that body online, I would feel a body, movement and space, and have a vision of electrical/interference patterns, but not a picture of my surroundings. As the 4th chakra came online I would suddenly have car dreams all... the... time. And with full vision. As the 4th chakra came fully online I would also be able to read signposts (or just know what they mean) or know what lay in what direction when I wondered about it.

This scheme Kurt presented for the development of energy body inner senses really helped me to gauge the progress of my own experiences and the development of that energy body. Your inner projection contains elements that may be similar pointers for yourself. If you didn't have more vision it was probably because the information you had, inner-sense-wise, was not clear enough to render a more detailed coherent picture from it, not because you didn't will it to happen. Details will come as more of your chakras come online and develop more.

An interesting experience, and that's really quite something with the star and your account of the stone.