[Bev Way]

Bev Way  asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Hi Chris

I was wondering if you could maybe shed some "light" into my question.

When one looks up at the night sky, we see our moon, the planets and most visible stars.  Yet when I look at most of the pictures taken from the landings on the moon (and I've studied hundreds of pics), there are no stars or planets visible, just our earth?

I've considered the fact that it could be their exposure time of their pics but even then some sort of blobs or lines should be visible.

Bev Way

What do you think?

[LeeE]

The distance of the Moon from the Sun isn't significantly different to Earth's distance from the Sun, so when it's daylight on the Moon it's just bright there as it is here.  In fact, because of the lack of weather, it's probably a bit brighter.

Because it's just as bright on the Moon, when in daylight, as it is on Earth, then just as you can't see stars in daylight here on Earth, you can't see them on the Moon either; compared with the daylight brightness of the ground (and on Earth, the sky too), the stars are too dim to see.  It's only when it gets dark here, and our eyes adjust to the lower light level and increase their sensitivity, that we can see the stars.  The same applies to cameras too.

The Earth's atmosphere doesn't really make much difference, as it's still there at night time and doesn't go away when it gets dark, but it does mean that the sky on Earth is also bright during the day time, whereas the sky is always dark on the Moon.  However, any photographs you see from the moon will be exposed for the ground brightness, and not the sky brightness.

If you were on the Moon, on the night-side, you'd be able to see and photograph the stars just as you can on Earth at night time, but just as on Earth, the ground would be dark.

[peter125]

It could also be that the director forgot to put the stars on the set of the "The Moon".

[Geezer]

If this turns into yet another moonlanding conspiracy topic, expect it to get locked.

Mod.

[RD]

Although stars would not normally be visible to the naked eye during daylight, whether from the Earth, the Moon, or on orbit, the planet Venus (which is much brighter than any of the stars) was actually recorded on film by astronaut Alan Shepard at the conclusion of his second extravehicular activity, during the Apollo 14 mission. Shepard was preparing to ascend the ladder to re-enter the lunar module Antares, when he likely noticed Venus shining brightly next to the crescent Earth.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Examination_of_Apollo_Moon_photographs#There_are_no_stars_in_any_of_the_photos