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-   -   Can you see stars from a plane at night? (https://www.pprune.org/questions/584324-can-you-see-stars-plane-night.html)

wiggy 10th Oct 2016 13:07

I blame the OP.....wonder if we will ever hear from him/her again.

Stanwell 10th Oct 2016 16:01

Doubt it.
I don't think geese fly at night - which could have been the reason for the question, hmm?

ShyTorque 10th Oct 2016 16:15

The only star you can never see from a plane at night is the sun.

AerocatS2A 11th Oct 2016 01:15

[Pedant]There are somewhere between 200 billion and 400 billion stars in our galaxy. We can only see about 5000 of them, depending on viewing conditions.[/pedant]

Following on from the above, the number of stars we can see is about 0.0000000125% of the number of stars in the galaxy. This number is near enough to 0% to make no difference. Therefore the answer to the OP is no, we can't see any stars from an aeroplane at night, and we can't see any from the ground either :ok::}.

Stanwell 11th Oct 2016 01:27

Oh, bugger!
And to think that I'd wasted all that time trying to count them.
Better to just go back to Bingo at the local community hall, I suppose. :(

G0ULI 13th Oct 2016 09:58

I suspect the original poster's question was meant to be, can you see stars in the daytime from an aircraft at 30,000 feet. This would be in line with the theory that from a sufficiently deep hole in the ground, you could see stars in the daytime because all randomly directed ambient light from the sun would be filtered out.

The straight answer is that you cannot see stars in the daytime at 30,000 feet from an aircraft, nor from the bottom of a mineshaft. At 100,000 feet the brighter stars directly overhead start to become visible in daylight.

ShyTorque 13th Oct 2016 10:55


Originally Posted by G0ULI (Post 9539357)
I suspect the original poster's question was meant to be, can you see stars in the daytime from an aircraft at 30,000 feet. This would be in line with the theory that from a sufficiently deep hole in the ground, you could see stars in the daytime because all randomly directed ambient light from the sun would be filtered out.

The straight answer is that you cannot see stars in the daytime at 30,000 feet from an aircraft, nor from the bottom of a mineshaft. At 100,000 feet the brighter stars directly overhead start to become visible in daylight.

The OP did say "at night". It's in the title.

G0ULI 14th Oct 2016 22:49

Yep, shoulda read the question properly. Mea culpa.

Tinribs 16th Oct 2016 19:37

seeing stars
 
The V Force conversion was long and detailed
One small exercise was to sit the newcomer on the astro stool with oxygen mask on, cabin alt about 8,000'. Sees stars through periscopic sextant. While watching remove oxygen mask, stars go. Oxygen mask on stars come back. So at night always wear your oxygen mask, see traffic. useful excercise

Denti 17th Oct 2016 09:24

Well, probably good advice. However in todays world: always wear O2 mask at night, get fired.

redsnail 17th Oct 2016 21:14

I was going to post about the cabin altitude but Tinribs lbeat me to it. :)
Denti oh yes! our pax would have coronaries. (No flight deck door)

Stanwell 18th Oct 2016 01:48

I'd just looked again at the original question..
"Can you see the stars from a plane at night"?

Try playing up with me while we're airborne and you might very well find out.

Bob Lenahan 27th Oct 2016 20:38

I've never been able to see stars at night while flying thru clouds.
Bob.

FLCH 1st Nov 2016 21:26

The Betty Ford clinic has the greatest cluster of burnt out stars.


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