Would an astronaut on the moon see constellations as we on Earth see them?

Question

Besides the fact that they would be clearer. Or would the fact that they could see more stars make the constellations harder to pick out?

Answer 1

First, the moon is not sufficiently far away to make the shapes of the constellations different.

While it is clear that the lack of atmospheric distortion would make the stars clearer (neglecting glare from the sun reflecting off the surface of the moon, of course) the clarity of the sky would work equally on bright and dim stars.

So, while you might see dimmer stars from the moon, the brighter stars of the constellations would be even more distinct, so you would see them just as well.

Remember, the moon reflects (on average) about 7 per cent of the sunlight it receives, which is about like asphalt. But, if you were to go to a shopping center with a parking lot paved with asphalt, at night and well lit up, you will see immediatly that, if an astronaut were in sunlight and not protected from the glare of the moon's surface, he or she would actually see few stars at all

Answer 2

The astronaut would see the stars in the same places, but would see a lot more of them, so they would likely be harder to pick out, particularly the constellations made up of the dimmer stars. Because the axis of rotation of the Moon is not aligned with the axis of rotation of the Earth and doesn't point in the same direction as the Earth's axis, if the Moon has a North Star, it isn't Polaris.

Answer 3

It took millennia for man to understand the nature of stars and how far away they are, with the parallax from two opposite sides of Earth's orbit around the Sun. The measly difference between the Moon and the Earth isn't big enough to measure any real difference. It would be harder to pick out constellations, though, because of the vast number of stars you could see.

David A.: Yes, in sunlight. But generally you'd be looking for stars during the lunar night instead of day.

Answer 4

The constellations were created before a lot of light pollution.True it is a little more difficult in spaces but the constellations are the brightest stars no matter were you are. In fact during the Apollo 13 mission, picking out the constellations was one of the ways they keep themselves distracted.

Answer 5

I'm sure they'd still be able to see constellations easily. The stars wouldn't twinkle and would appear brighter but I don't think the sky map would change much than if you viewed the sky from a pitch black site on Earth.

Answer 6

Essentially as we do; and no, the constellations would not be harder to pick out because the brighter stars would be brighter still, and thus still stand out.