You almost always see a black background. From the earth one can see thousands of stars. From the space they must be millions but see the pictures, the stars are not there. Should the answer be : Earth glare? That much?
2006-12-09 07:05:18 · 4 answers · asked by Yomero M 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
It's not "earth glare" -- it's the difference in brightness between the sun-lit astronauts and the dim stars.
The astronauts and shuttle you see in the pictures are lit by the sun, and so have about the same brightness they would if they were sitting on the ground on earth on a sunny day. When you set a camera to expose properly for a sun-lit object, the stars (which are thousands of times dimmer) will be horribly under-exposed, and you won't see them. You can duplicate this easily enough yourself -- go outside on a starry night, take a flash picture of someone (the flash lights close objects to be about the same as a sun-lit object) -- see any stars in the background, even though they're visible with your eyes? Nope.
I do astrophotography -- even with very sensitive, specially-cooled astronomical CCD cameras, you have to expose for a second or two just to see the brightest stars. Exposure for a sun-lit subject is only about 1/500th of a second -- not nearly long enough to have the stars show up.
2006-12-09 08:15:48 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Stars are millions of times dimmer than the Earth reflecting sunlight, or definitely the sun itself. You'd need to take a long exposure to see the stars - and then the Earth would just overpower the film or chip. Go stand under a street light at night and take a picture of the stars; you'll see what I mean.
2006-12-09 07:25:50 · answer #2 · answered by eri 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Because the shuttle is pointed to the earth and not the other part of the sky. Thats why theres always a dark background and the low orbit is another reason too . . .
2006-12-09 09:12:29 · answer #3 · answered by xpseth 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You're shooting a bright subject (moon/astronauts) with very dim stars behind them and exposing for the moon and not the stars. The film could never handle the contrast difference. If you have any night time shots of some one lit by a flash on your camera with the sky behind them, you won't see any stars either.
2006-12-09 07:10:38 · answer #4 · answered by Gene 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋