Moon-Earth question

They saw the continents they where standing on at the time.

Very clever. g You know I always wondered why we could never see
any stars in the photographs taken by the Apollo astronauts.

I would think in an almost perfect vacuum, one could see a few
stars - right?

--
Phil

Go learn something about photographic science, especially about exposure
latitude and optics. The astronauts were using "daylight" exposures on the
moon to correctly expose for the moonscape. These exposures are far to
short to record stars in any sky.

Martin

The stars might even be difficult to see visually on the day side of the
moon because the eye will adjust for the brightness of the landscape.

Jerry Abbott

"Jerry Abbott" wrote in message
...
|
| The stars might even be difficult to see visually on the day
| side of the moon because the eye will adjust for the brightness
| of the landscape.

Apollo 14 LMP Ed Mitchell confirms this. In the normal course of work you
cannot see stars. But if you take precautions to cut out light from sunlit
terrain and objects and allow your eyes to adjust, you can make out stars.

This is similar to working on film sets at night, or under street lights in
a city. With the bright lights on you can't see the stars, but when you
turn them off and pack them up, you can see them quite nicely.

--
|
The universe is not required to conform | Jay Windley
to the expectations of the ignorant. | webmaster @ clavius.org

"Jerry Abbott" wrote in message
...
|
| The stars might even be difficult to see visually on the day
| side of the moon because the eye will adjust for the brightness
| of the landscape.

Apollo 14 LMP Ed Mitchell confirms this. In the normal course of work you
cannot see stars. But if you take precautions to cut out light from sunlit
terrain and objects and allow your eyes to adjust, you can make out stars.

This is similar to working on film sets at night, or under street lights in
a city. With the bright lights on you can't see the stars, but when you
turn them off and pack them up, you can see them quite nicely.

--
|
The universe is not required to conform | Jay Windley
to the expectations of the ignorant. | webmaster @ clavius.org