Stars

[Richieh]

Why cant you see stars during the day

[dinsdale]

due to the high intensity light caused by the sun during day light hours, the human eye is not capable of decipering the tiny amount of light given from the stars. During the night hours when our side of the earth is sheilded from the sunlight, our eyes can see the small amount of light from stars a great distance from the earth. Another way to see this is by looking at the end of a cigarette from across a room during day light and in the dark you will notice a vast difference in the intensity of the red light.

[New Forester]

Another way to look at it is that the scattered light in the sky is brighter than the starlight. If you look at a bright moon in a blue daytime sky, you'll notice that the white bits just show, with blue in the dark bits. At night, however, the moon (even quite a thin one) is far brighter than any star. Our eyes adjust enormously to suit the general illumination, so the difference between bright and dull seems much less than it really is. I think the sun is millions of times as bright as the moon -- which is in fact quite dark grey, not white. If you don't know anyone who smokes, a more familiar illustration is when the sun shines on a telly or computer screen -- what seems bright in the dark becomes overwhelmed by the sunlight.

[Phantaxus]

did i read somewhere that you can see the stars in daytime if you stand down the bottom of a well and look up? hows that work then or did I dream it?

[dinsdale]

well Phantaxus, if you fall down a well you may see stars, unfortunatly they are not the hevenly bodies i think this question was refering to!!! You have either done it or dreamt it mate.

[Kos]

Phantaxus- you are right, though I've never tried it myself- due to the lack of wells in Birmingham City centre!

[Normski]

Actually I think he's right. If the well is deep enough and the width is narrow enough, then not enough light from the sun would be able to enter the well to overwhelm the  light from the (directly overhead) star.

It's like the when you look through a tube a the t.v, it seems a sharper and brighter image because your eye receives less light from other sources, daylight, room light etc and hence you get a sensation of a better/brighter picture.

 

Or simply watch the tv in a pitch black room.