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seamustheseagull t1_ixa9mf5 wrote

Reply to comment by Stillcant in Just how dark is deep space? by ArmchairSpinDoctor

Afaik, the light on a moonless night is mostly red and green light refracted across the atmosphere from the sun on the other side of the planet.

I've seen some charts suggesting starlight could be strong enough in isolation to illuminate, but it's still drowned out by the relatively bright sunen when it's behind the planet.

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entropy2057 t1_ixbqpdh wrote

>hlight. Not a chance. I flicked a lighter's sparker to flash a momentary light. Another one was riding a bicycle in a VERY dark spot in New Zealand wi

Your comment interested me so I did some googling. Looks like light doesn't actually refract all the way around the earth but the air of the atmosphere actually emits light through various physical processes (airglow). Zodiacal light is also a significant contribution.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_brightness

The above article is about the apparent brightness of the sky itself and puts starlight at ~7% of the total contribution

The link below directly addresses illumination on the ground and puts starlight at about 1/5th of the total contribution. So away from the atmosphere it would be a lot dimmer for sure but still brighter than a cave~

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/what-are-the-relative-sources-of-light-on-a-moonless-night-1.6188393#:

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