How are stars visible to us, even though they are so far away?
819846
I am an MD. This is a very interesting question. The resolution of the naked eye among people with the finest vision is about 1 arc minute. Star discs are far, far, smaller than this, so how can the eye see something that is that small? The answer is that a typical star image, though exceedingly small, is nevertheless very bright when compared to the night sky. The star image will appear as a diffraction (Airy) disk on the surface of your retina that is about one arc minute in diameter that is too bright to be ignored. Your retinal cells process the incoming light and send the signal to your brain, and what you perceive is a tiny bright speck. This is perhaps equivalent to your digital camera showing a star image consisting of a single pixel being illuminated. I hope this helps.
1136943
M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is the most distant object easily seen with the naked eye. In a very dark sky, you may be able to see M33, which may be 3 million light years distant.\n\nIt's a little more difficult to determine what is the  most distant individual star that can be seen with the naked eye, as it is apt to be some faint, nondescript star. Also, it is difficult to accurately determine the distance to a single star at distances over 1500 light years. P Cygni, a fifth magnitude star in the constellation Cygnus (the Swan or Northern Cross) is a very luminous star possibly 6000 light years away. This is probably a reasonable approximation of how far away a star can be seen. Note that this is still in our Milky Way Galaxy, which is around 100,000 light years in diameter. However, you might be able to see a supernova in a nearby galaxy.  SN1987A in the large Magellanic Cloud reached third magnitude, and it was fairly dim for a supernova.  (About magnitudes: six is about the dimmest visible, smaller numbers are brighter. The brightest star, Sirius is -1.)
306388
This is entirely dependant on your latitude.\nIf you go to Amazon, and search for planisphere, you will find an array of maps which you can use to determine when stars will be visible. You will need to know your latitude before you buy one though, as they are calibrated for particular values. You should be able to find the same in a local bookshop, and these will probably be at the correct latitude for you.
651175
If you want to know the names of celestial objects, you need to be familiar with landmarks in the celestial sphere, such as Polaris, the Big Dipper, Orion, etc. These are easy to find constellations and stars that provide guides to harder to find objects. Get a star gazing guide, or the excellent Starry Night Pro software: http://www.starrynight.com/ .\nIf you mean how to tell satellites from planets and stars, note that objects near Earth do not scintillate (twinkle) like stars. Most satellites move very fast, and are obviously moving too fast for the Earth's rotation to be the only cause. Planets are extremely bright compared to stars and do not scintillate.\nDon't expect to see nebulas and other faraway objects without a (good, not department store style) telescope or a strong pair of binoculars. The only galaxy you can see with the naked eye is our own, the Milky Way, and at that only in non-light polluted areas. I have never seen the Milky Way from NYC, but from the equator, it's a beautiful sight (it's a milky white band across the sky).
671170
Are you including the stars that are being created, as well as those that do not actually exist anymore but have died out/ supernova'd/ etc. that we are just still seeing since the light has to travel so far?  \n\nI would be interested in how you determined this number ^_^
327885
The stars are out all the time it's just that during the hours of daylight it's too bright to see them.  There will be stars every night, whether cloud obscures them or not is a different matter.
965023
FIRST and foremost, simply, on the ocean you have a wider field of view. So ,  because of the increased area in view, you actually do see more stars. And i most certainly concur with other good answers, in that the lack of  'light pollution' is no doubt almost as helpfull as a good old fashioned pair of binoculars. Amazing what one can do with a little glass.
789785
The stars themselves don't.  It is just an illusion.  The miles of air in our atmosphere between our eyes and the star changes in temperature and humidity which makes the star look like it is flickering when it really glows at a constant rate.
312310
Is there such a thing as close by planets?\nWith all that we see in the night sky, not just stars but galaxies as well, what are the chances that we are alone in the universe?\nThere has to be intelligent life out there. We are all just too far from reach of each other. And most likely, other intelligence would be like us and send probes. Living beings could not survive the long travel, space probes could.
933426
At the zenith, you can observer an astronomical object through the least amount of Earths atmosphere.\n\nThe more atmosphere that the light from the object passes through before hitting your eyes (or telescope), the more blurry the image. This is what causes stars (and planets to a lesser degree) to "twinkle".  It follows that since you are looking through less air, starlight  is also less affected by dust particles and air currents.\n\nStill, cold, thin air = good seeing. (One reason why most of the major ground based observatories are at high altitudes)
725422
They can fall anywhere on the H-R diagram. The age and the temperature of the star are located on the axes, but the distance of the star isn't mentioned.\n\nAlso, say the ratio of stars visible to the naked eye and stars visible with a telescope is f/g (g obviously being bigger). This ratio is differenciated by brightness*nearness, where brightness*nearness has to be greater than a certain number to be visible by the naked eye. Since most stars are main sequence stars, the graph of stars can look like this:\n\n....*..............*............*.M\n................*........*.*M..*..\n......*............*..M..*....*...\n..*............*M..*.......*......\n........*..M.*..*.........*.......\n.*..*M.*....*.....*...........*..\n\nAs you can see, most stars are on the diagonal that cuts from the bottom left to the top right M's. If you randomly take away a  number of stars, then the diagonal will most likely be there. Thus, most visible stars are near the graph of (f*brightness/g*nearness) which is the diagonal.
56614
The pictures taken in space are (usually) taken through a very small aprature and have a very short depth of field.  That means they're not focusing on the background at all.  Because of this, the light of the stars is often too dim to be sceen by the camera, especially when there's a bright object in frame. (The Earth, a lit astronaut, space shuttle, ect.)\n\nI can't respond again, so I'm editing this one.\n\nTo the girl below me, I think your answer is well incorrect.  The distance from Earth to state is 60,000 miles.  The stars are light years away.  From Earth to near space is such a small distance coparitively is like saying that standing in New York, you'll be able to see a movie screen in San Fransico easier if you jump up and down.
940748
This is an illusion. The aperture used on cameras in space is so small as not to allow enough light in to be able to see the stars. Try using a video camera to video the night sky on earth, you will find that you won't see the stars then either. \n\nDon't worry, the stars don't disappear when you get to space.
667504
Yes you can see them -- as other have pointed out they are seen as object that moves across from sky in a matter of a minute of so -- far faster and completely steady unlike an air plane -- once you have seen one you will know.\n\nThey are best seen just after sun set (or just before sun rise) where it is dark at ground level but due to the curvature of the earth still sun light 100 mile above.   At this point you can clearly see the stateliest as the passes though sun light and become bright as a star.\n\nThe link below will search (click on the SkySearch) though a database of ~300 satellites which are easy to see, and give you a time for when you can see them locally.\n\nMake sure that you 1) provide the accurate information of where you are going to be looking, as a few miles does make a difference to both whether you can see them but also to the time, and 2) make sure you have a clock which is right to the second as that helps you look for the right thing.
746821
...because if you look somewhere else where the star won't appear, you won''t see the shooting star. you can't see a shooting star if you are not looking in the direction of the star. You can't see something that you're not looking at obviously.
876832
stars are million km far away from us.it is observed that when the star is of blueish colour,they are new born when they appear yellowish they are middle aged and when stars appear reddish they are old and can burst anytime but it takes million of years to observe weather that particular star is there or not
682284
yes u can see them .go far awy from city where there is vry less artificial light source n enjoy this event at dark night .u can see them moving as though a star is moving . satellite don't flicker.\n\nor see tht in film the octubar sky.