Why Can’t We See the Stars in Daytime?
Why Can’t We See the Stars in Daytime? The stars shine all the time, day and night. We do not see them in daytime because of the glare of sunlight. The sun’s light is many thousands of times brighter than starlight, and it spreads out through the atmosphere, coloring it blue.
This blue light is much brighter than the faint light coming from the stars, so it prevents us from seeing them. In all this brightness, the light from the stars is lost.
Only in the evening can we begin to see them again. If you were standing on the Moon, for instance, where there is no atmosphere, you would see the stars both day and night.
The ancient Egyptians believed that stars were lanterns lighted each night by the gods. They thought that the gods let these lanterns down on cables through holes in the sky, and in the morning pulled them up again and put them out.