Why can't stars be seen in any of the photos taken from space or the moon?

Question

No conspiracy theories please, that will not be helpful

Answer 1

Nobody really answered this one.

The fact is that 5 minutes somebody explaining the basic principles of photography is enough. When the scene of the photo is flooded with light, the camera "stops down" - that means the iris structure in it closes so as not to get too much light, otherwise the film is flooded out.

This is the same as what happens with your eyes in bright light.

If you flooded your yard with light at night, you would not see the stars.

When you go to a floodlit open-roofed sports stadium, you cannot see the stars. Neither could you photograph them. It is as simple as that.

The surface of the moon is extremely bright in sunlight. Which part of this do people not understand? I do remember someone asking if it is dark all the time on the moon, so I supposed some of the ignorance of this could stem from people not even thinking. The moon is brilliant as seen from earth, how can anyone think it is dark there. People just do not think. It is amazing.

But amazing how many people just do not know that, and even supposedly bright people turn on their stupidity switch in order to use this as "proof" that man never went to the moon.

Answer 2

Photos taken on the Moon by the Apollo astronauts were done with more or less standard film cameras modified to be used with heavy gloves. Some were made by Hassleblad. Objects in sunlight on the Moon are brilliantly lit and have extreme contrast. Because of the brilliant light, specially on the light coloured Moon rocks and white spacesuits, the astronauts had to close the diaphragms of the cameras down to avoid overexposure of the film. Thus the relatively weak light of stars in the background was not recorded on the film. However I'm sure that if you looked carefully at all the photos you would still see a few of the brightest stars like Sirius or maybe our big planets like Jupiter in the background.

The same explanation applies to photos taken in orbit of people doing spacewalks, the Hubble 'scope and other spacecraft. These are usually white to prevent the Sun from warming them excessively and are brilliantly lit.

Answer 3

Well they were in the daylight side of the moon, and the camera was set for only enough exposure time to collect the bright light reflected off the moon's surface, astronauts at the like. The stars are incredibly faint, so you'd need to do a much longer exposure to capture them. If they wanted to get the stars, everything else would get horribly overexposed. The same thing applies here on Earth, go out at night and take a picture with the camera set to daylight exposure, you won't see stars I guarantee you, just inky blackness. To capture stars you'd a much need longer exposure time, and a very steady place to set the camera.

Answer 4

Because the stars are not very bright, but the sun and everything that has sunlight falling on it is. If the camera were set to a long enough exposure to show the stars, the astronauts and space craft that are in full sunlight would be grossly over exposed. It would be like trying to see and photograph the stars from a brightly lit football stadium at a night game. You will have a hard time even seeing the stars with your eyes in such a case.

Answer 5

The surface reflects so much light that the stars are blocked out by the glare. Any images that i have taken of the lunar surface do not have stars in the background. The only time that I have been allowed to capture occulting stars is if I used a Polarizing filter.

Answer 6

Stars are dim, even in space, and the moon's surface is highly reflective of sunlight. They are too dim, like trying to take a picture of the stars while standing under a streetlight.

Answer 7

Dear Sirs:

Please keep in mind that you asked a question about picture taking...i.e., digital or film through a lins...and the lens had to be set to focus on what? Something nearby like a fellow Astronaut, or a Space Vehicle, or a Lunar/Mars Rover. Focus settings on those objects would be for a focus distance of less than 100 yards, right? Not at infinity. So any small pinpoints of light would be blurred out into nothing. Try it at home if you like with any fairly good camera. Pin hole cameras do not have lenses which require focusing, so do not try this with one of those. (No pin hole cameras have been used on Space Flights).

Answer 8

Er...stars can be seen, that's kind of the point of Hubble.

Answer 9

in the case of the moon landing the pictures where retouched for some reason.

Answer 10

The sun. Its kinda big, and kinda bright too.