How many stars are there in the sky?

Answer 1

There are about 2800 stars that can be seen with the naked eye, if the conditions are ideal (no light pollution, super dark night with clear sky, and assuming you can only see part of the sky as a big part is on the other side of the planet) see link #1.
However, if you want to know how many are there that could be visible if you had the most powerful telescope anyone can imagine, then the number is a bit more: 70 sextillion (see link #2).
Our galaxy, the Milkyway, contains about 100 billion stars, and there are more galaxies in the universe than there are stars in a galaxy.

Answer 2

Ok, time for a sensible answer.

For a moment lets take your use of the word sky to mean "the night sky as seen from a point on the face of the planet earth in the year 2006".

Assuming this there are approximately 6000 magnitude 6 or higher stars (i.e. visible with the naked eye with perfect conditions) visible from the earth. As you can only see one hemisphere from any given point that brings it down to 3000.

However most places in the developed world suffer from poor seeing conditions mostly due to light pollution. This takes the number of actual visible stars on any given night down to around 1000. Looks more than this though doesn't it.

If you when you say sky you mean universe then the number if much bigger and probably unknowable. However there are around 400 billion stars in our galaxy alone.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

The number of stars visible to the naked eye can vary from several thousand down to a handful, depending on the degree of light pollution in your sky. The Yale Bright Star Catalog lists all the stars down to magnitude 6.5, often considered to be the limit of visibility, and comes up with 9096. A supplement going down to magnitude 7.1 lists an additional 2603 stars, which might be visible in a pristine sky to someone with very good eyesight. Only about half of these will be above the horizon at one time, of course.

As far as a total star count, a recent estimate of the number of stars in the visible universe put the number at 70 sextillion (7x10^22).

Answer 4

Depending on where on Earth you are at the time, there are approx 2,200 to 3,000 stars visible to the naked eye if there is no light pollution ie, it is pitch dark.

It is generally accepted that there are approx 100 billion stars in the Milky Way and estimates vary but an average consensus suggests there are some 100 billion gallaxies. Which gives a total of lots and lots but we don't know for sure.

Answer 5

In the Universe it is estimated that there are about 10^23 stars

Answer 6

Our Galaxy may contain as many as 4 billion stars...

The Universe is thought to contain upwards of 250 billion Galaxies...

Some Galaxies (e.g. Andromeda) are bigger than our Galaxy -

Do the Math - 4 billion stars x 250 billion Galaxies.

At least 1000000000000000000000 stars

Answer 7

the best way to answer that is to find a really high mountain.
found it?
good.
now....wait for the night time
waiting?
now that night time has come, climb the tall mountain..
have u climbed it?
sit there and make urself comfortable.
done?
u shud have a notebook, a pen, a can of dr.pepper and some munchies with u coz ur gonna be sitting there a long time, counting the stars, buddy!

Answer 8

Visible Stars ("stars in the sky"):
The Bright Star Catalogue, also known as the Yale Catalogue of Bright Stars or Yale Bright Star Catalogue, is a star catalogue that lists of all stars of stellar magnitude 6.5 or brighter, which is roughly every star visible to the naked eye. It is currently available online in its 5th edition from several sources
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_Star_Catalogue

"The Bright Star Catalogue contains 9110 entries of all stars brighter than magnitude 6.5 (the naked eye visible stars)."
From:
http://www.alcyone.de/SIT/bsc/

Total stars:
"Stars are not spread uniformly across the universe, but are normally grouped into galaxies along with interstellar gas and dust. A typical galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars, and there are more than 100 billion (10^11) galaxies in the observable universe."
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars

Hope this helps!

Answer 9

technically the 'sky' only goes up/out so far and then you are in space so there are no stars in the 'sky'! Boring i know but sadly true!

Answer 10

Visible to the naked eye, about 5000 give or take. How many stars in total though, billions.