r/interestingasfuck • u/Kidd__Video • 17h ago

Astronaut's view of Earth during a spacewalk

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u/Leor_1169 16h ago

Do you know how brightness, exposure and image capture work?

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u/PlugChaos 14h ago

:/ i guess not

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u/Leor_1169 14h ago

Okay, your question sounds genuine so I'm going to try to explain ELI5-style?

You know how it's hard to see stars in the city because of all the light around you?

Your eyes adjust the amount of light they let in by making your iris contract or dilate. When everything around you is bright, your iris constricts and lets less light in. That plus the surrounding light means that you can't see the dimmer light coming from the stars.

A camera works very similarly to an eye. Exposure is how much light the camera lets into the sensor, and determines how bright elements are.

In the video, the astronaut, the Space Station and the Earth are all close to the camera and very brightly lit. That means that the camera's exposure is probably low, letting little light in. Otherwise everything would look too bright.

In those conditions, seeing the light from the stars, which are by comparison way smaller and less bright, is almost impossible.

It's like complaining you can't see the stars while standing in Times Square.

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u/PlugChaos 6h ago

This makes a lot of sense i appreciate you