When the shot is taken with earth behind the shuttle you can see the earth, but if its just space it's just all black, no stars at all. Seems like there would be a billion points of light.
2007-08-11 10:28:13 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The problem is one of balancing the light intensity so that the space vehicle, which is usually nearly all white, shows up with enough detail without being washed out by the extremely intense sunlight that exists above the atmosphere. With the proper exposure set, the stars are too dim to register on the film or video screen.
2007-08-11 10:35:33 · answer #1 · answered by ? 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Because they are not bright enough. All those pictures are taken in broad daylight. The sky is black because there is no air to scatter light, but the Earth and shuttle and space station and astronauts are all brightly lit by the Sun, and the camera shutter speed is set to expose those bright objects correctly. That results in the stars being very under exposed. It is similar to pictures at night baseball games. The stadium lights are on and the TV camera shutter speed is set to show the field and players under the bright lights, and even when they follow a fly ball and you see the dark sky, the stars are not visible. Because they are just too dim.
2007-08-11 17:37:01 · answer #2 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
No stars in the sky is one of the 'proofs' that those bimbos claiming men have never landed on the moon use. The reason images from the lunar surface and the shuttle/ISS is the same :: light reflected from the lunar surface and/or spacecraft is very bright and 'washes out' the tiny points of light from stars. It's like trying to see a 40 watt lightbulb sitting next to a 500 wattt bulb.
2007-08-11 18:16:57 · answer #3 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This is because of the limitations of the cameras taking the pictures. They automatically reduce the amount of light entering the camera because the shuttle is so bright in the sun. This makes the camera too insensitive to image the MUCH fainter stars in the field of view.
2007-08-11 18:18:58 · answer #4 · answered by Michael da Man 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In outer space the contrast of the bright refletion of sunlight of the surface of the shuttle to the pitch dark background cause that cameras don't "see" the stars. They are not bright enough. Similar effect, you cannot see many stars at a bright full moon compared to a night w/o moon.
2007-08-11 17:34:19 · answer #5 · answered by Fast Eddie 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
To avoid overexposure, you have to decrease the brightness. The space shuttle and Earth appear very bright due to reflected light. However, the reduced brightness dims the background stars to nothing.
2007-08-11 17:32:22 · answer #6 · answered by lithiumdeuteride 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
If you have seen the right photos, you would have seen that there are a lot of stars that show up, many more than from Earth, and they all are a light brighter.
2007-08-11 18:16:53 · answer #7 · answered by Universe V 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The camera is set for trhe bright earth image. The stars are much fainter, so they don't show in that picture.
2007-08-11 17:54:00 · answer #8 · answered by Renaissance Man 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nope, not quite right.
The stars are certainly there, but they're out of focus. The camera is looking at the near-range, and this de-focuses everything in the mid- and deep-range.
The same is true when looking at pics taken by the Apollo astronauts on the moon. Everything up close looks great, but one cannot see the stars in the far background.
2007-08-11 17:33:12 · answer #9 · answered by stevenB 4 · 0⤊ 4⤋