Why don't lots of stars show up in pictures from space?

Whenever I see pictures of taken by astronauts in the space shuttle or from satellites, I expect to see a blaze of stars. Instead, I only see nearby objects.

Why don't lots of stars show up in pictures from space?
Cameras have a much smaller dynamic range than human eyes do. For example, with the naked eye you can be inside a room which has a large window out of which you can see the sunny outside. Our eyes can easily view the lower-lit interior of the room and the much brighter outdoors at the same time.





However, if you try to take a picture of someone indoors in front of that same window, the window will either be washed out with excessive light, or the interior will be too dark. The camera cannot capture that large dynamic range of light like our eyes can.





Because of this, cameras are set for daytime (bright) exposures. This means it exposes frames more quickly because it expects a large amount of light, as there would be from bright objects in the day. Stars are relatively faint compared to this so the exposure is not long enough to capture the stars. If the camera was set up to be able to capture stars, then everything in the foreground would be overexposed and the pictures worthless.
Reply:Because planets are very bright and reflective. And stars are very dim. It's like standing under a bright street light and trying to photograph stars. The exposure is too short - you won't get enough light to see them. Which is why Hubble can spend 2 weeks on just ONE exposure to see something very dim.
Reply:That's because that's where the focus is on, nearby objects. The camera would have to be focuses to infinity to focus in on the stars.
Reply:If you looked out the window with the lights on you wouldn't see any stars either.





Here, the next time you wake up in the middle of the night open the top window and pull down the screen before turning on any lights. Then have someone turn on the lights without you looking at them. Do you see any stars?





The astronauts are outside remember?, last time I checked sunlight is brighter than lightbulbs.
Reply:The brightness of any foreground objects enter into the mix.


A bright one causes the iris to get smaller, therby diminishing the view of stars in the picture.





A perfect example is the photos of astronauts standing in the open on the moon. If the bright, sunlit surface not been so bright, then many stars could be seen by them and their camera.
Reply:The amount of light from the stars is very small.





In comparision, the sunlight reflected from those nearby objects


is very intense.
Reply:NIce question. stars seem like they are very close. but they are not. stars a billions of miles away from everything. it seems like they are so close to each other down from earth but its just because they shine VERRRY brightly. you dont see stars in a picture of outer space because they are so far away.





hope this helped!!
Reply:It depends on the exposure time. You can see fainter objects with larger integration time. Also, some pictures you see are reduced, in other words, nearby objects are erased, and only the star of interest is kept. For example, if an astronomer is studying a certain region of space, at a given distance, she will erase the nearby objects, so as to have a better visualization of the dynamics of the fainter objects that are at comparable distances.