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If you travel to somewhere with essentially zero light pollution, like a desert, if it's a clear sky you can see with starlight This reminds me... I need to ex

If you travel to somewhere with essentially zero light pollution, like a desert, if it's a clear sky you can see with starlight This reminds me... I need to experience this firsthand at some point. Thank you! Question: how much (if any) of that light is due to atmospheric scattering? ie, the sun's light hitting the daytime side of the earth, being scattered in our atmosphere, and faintly illuminating the night side of our planet? Would the same be true in the zero-atmosphere environment of space? Here are some possible answers: https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/25901/how-bright-is-starlight-in-deep-space https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/25901/how-bright-i...

joshvm 5y ago
Plenty of places around the world offer dark enough conditions (but make sure it’s a new moon) - in the US you just need to get out to Arizona or Joshua Tree (or similar empty places). In Europe and elsewhere look for International Dark Sky Reserves. In general go visit places where telescopes are built. Possible that some of it is from scattering and then if course you wouldn't get that in space as there's no atmosphere to scatter from! Scattering is incredibly faint though, even compared to starlight. See also gegenschein and the Zodiacal light - both are backscatter effects.