Starship Asterisk*

The loss of stars in the background is directly related to Earth Shine overpowering the image and causing the relative brightness of background stars to be diminished. Much like trying to view stars from the relative brightness of a city versus the relative darkness in a rural setting or mountain top.

As for the darkness of the astronaut's visor, it is necessary to protect their eyes from the dangerous solar radiation that is no longer filtered by the earths atmosphere.

Don't we already have canadarm thread?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060522.html

Hi misho,

I don't think there is any filter in particular to block out the stars, the contents of the frame are simply so bright compared to the stars that they do not show up. This is the same reason there are no stars visible in (most of) the moon landing photos - the lunar surface reflected too much light.

I suppose there would be a filter, just a high light level filter like a pair of sunglasses (notice the space suit faceplate is tinted dark also), but nothing fancy.

Hi,
:o Does anyone know what kind of camera filters are used so that tha stars cannot be seen in the picture?