belief is that they will seem slightly brighter from space as there is no atmosphere to interfere with the view. From the Shuttle missions or the
International Space Station we see lots of photos of the stars.
This image is from a shuttle mission, and obviously taken looking towards the Earth. All photos taken from the
ISS show the Earth too, as there are actually no in-use windows or portholes facing away from Earth, so as silly as
it may seem, they can not actually see out to space from the Space Station. Yes, those stars are in space but the line
of sight to those stars is through the Earths upper atmosphere. This is the very most basic thing to understand
about taking photos of the stars from space, some manner of intervening atmosphere is required.
The only people who have been outside of Earths atmosphere are the Apollo astronauts on their Lunar orbiting
or landing missions. They had the finest cameras and the most sensitive films, but as with the Sun, they did not
photograph the stars from deep space. In the case of the stars though, they did actually try to take photos of the
stars, but were unsuccessful. Exposure times were up to 3 minutes, but no stars were evident.
AS16-125-19927
From Apollo 16 image atlas
As well as the lack of photographs of the stars, or planets, there is also the the confirmation of the utter blackness of space
by way of interviews and transcripts from most of the Apollo astronauts, as well as from present day astronauts who have
visited the International Space Station and had the opportunity to perform a space walk. When on a space walk that allows
them to look away from Earth, the astronauts all report on the total blackness out there.
During the Apollo 15,16,17 missions, while in trans-Earth coast, in cislunar space, an EVA was performed to retrieve film
canisters from a camera in an external bay, and to check on experiments being performed to study the effects of UV radiation
on some biological specimens.
From Apollo 16:
219 37 05 Mattingly (EVA): I'm really
surprised I don't see any stars.
219 37 07 Young (onboard): Charlie's only said 25 times it's black out there.
219 37 11 Duke (onboard): What?
219 37 12 Young (onboard): You've only said that 25 times. (Laughter)
219 37 14 Duke (onboard): (Garble) see (garble) (laughter).
219 37 15 Young (onboard): It really must be black out there! (Laughter)
219 37 17 Duke (onboard): It's really black! (Laughter)
219 37 07 Young (onboard): Charlie's only said 25 times it's black out there.
219 37 11 Duke (onboard): What?
219 37 12 Young (onboard): You've only said that 25 times. (Laughter)
219 37 14 Duke (onboard): (Garble) see (garble) (laughter).
219 37 15 Young (onboard): It really must be black out there! (Laughter)
219 37 17 Duke (onboard): It's really black! (Laughter)
From A17:
CC Question 12 for each of you: What do you hope to tell your grandchildren as your most memorable moment of your trip to the Moon?
Well, I'll start with that one, Hank. I had two impressions. The-the first is the dazzling beauty of Descartes -the surface. It was just one of the most awe-inspiring sights I've ever seen. And, secondly, on the EVA, when you look away from the Earth -or the Moon - it's Just the utter blackness of space. It really is black out there.
And from more recently :
The first professional British astronaut [Tim Peake] said the most unexpected thing was "the blackness of space".
"We always talk about seeing the view of planet Earth and how beautiful it is and you come to expect that.
"But what people don't mention that much is when you look in the opposite direction and you see how dark space is.
"It is just the blackest black and that was a real surprise to me."
Although some astronauts have reported on seeing stars during the Apollo missions, it can not be determined just where they were
at the time, and which direction they were looking. Also, during the Apollo missions, the stars were viewed through the sextant, a
very special piece of equipment that was part of the Apollo Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) device, an extremely complex
unit, and the view through the sextant actually showed what the Star Tracker was seeing. It is the Star Tracker that saw the stars, not
human eyes while in deep space.
The astronauts did not see the Sun between the
time they left Earth orbit and arrival in lunar orbit .
In order to reduce solar radiation heating up the interior of the
craft, and in order that the crew could be kept dark adapted, insulated, reflective
window shades were to be installed if their orientation would have allowed the Sun to enter the cabin.
On page 17 of this pdf file is the reference to sunshafting:
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/tnD7290Lighting.pdf
Hubble.
If nothing is visible from space, then how does the Hubble Space Telescope see the stars?
For a start, Hubble is not in deep space, it is in a low Earth orbit. Secondly, Hubble does not take pictures as we would
do with a telescope on Earth fitted with a camera. Creating an image from the data that Hubble collects is a very
complex affair that requires extensive data processing and algorithms and then some artistic interpretation to produce
the final image.
The heritage of Hubble can be traced back as far as Galileo Galilei and the Vatican.
One thing that has always puzzled me is why no other space capable nation has its own space telescope. Hubble was so expensive,
I am told, that no other nation can afford to have one, and why would we need another one if Hubble is available? Well, time on
Hubble is very hard to come by, and only approved observations will ever get time allocations.
There have been attempts to place smaller, much cheaper telescopes in space, but so far none have ever got off the ground.
Testbed Paves Way for Amateur Space Telescope
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/testbed-paves-way-for-amateur-space-telescope/
Vintage Micro: The Amateur Space Telescope
http://www.drewexmachina.com/2014/04/06/vintage-micro-the-american-space-telescope/
It is surprising to me that a country such as Japan with their ability to get into space and their companies such as Nikon
which produce some very fine cameras and optics, and whos products are used by the ISS crews to photograph Earth and
its surrounding atmosphere, would not be interested in having their own space based telescope. Russia certainly has the
capability, and for 'National Security' reasons perhaps, I doubt they could not afford such a venture.
The reason that there are no simple, space based telescopes with a camera at the focal plane is that they will not be able
to see anything if they are pointed directly away from Earth, and there is absolutely no proof that they could.
If the stars are not visible from space then all presently accepted astronomical models collapse.
To Hubble even the nearest star to us would be much less than 1 pixel in size, so how do
they produce an image of Proxima Centauri that looks like this?
Here is a pdf of a book by Bahram Katirai called Revolution in astronomy
He examines the resolution of Hubble and offers an interesting
alternative to the standard interpretation of Hubble images.
Hubble it would seem must be using sub-pixel interferometry.
Index
