Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related FFQ: Stars in the sky...

Okay, this is a loaded question, I'm afraid, but one I hope can be answered.

If Superman could count all the stars in the sky (in the Kansas night sky), how many would he find and how long would it take him?

I've looked up a little bit of information on this, so I'm not totally in the dark... wow... bad pun, but it was unintentional and funny, so I'm leaving it.

There are many different numbers as to the total of stars in the sky - in the billions and trillions - but as for those visible to the naked eye, it's apparently around the thousands. Some say 6000, while others say 8000, but those numbers are futher divided by what hemispere you're in and how bright (or dark, rather) the moon is. This number seems shockingly low. Now, the scientists and others on several websites say "visible to the naked (human) eye."

So... since Superman has telescopic vision, he'd obviously see more, but *how* many? And really, how long would it take to count them? Shoot, I might as well ask too, how long to count -- superspeed and normal speed? You know... to cover all my bases.

Sara (who hopes all of that wasn't as confusing as she thinks )

No matter how clear the sky or how superpowered Clark is, the fact remains: He would lose count!
Believe me, I know.

Depends on which astronomer's catalogue you go by.

There is a Bright Star catalogue, which lists all stars visible with the naked eye. It has 9110 entries.

http://www.alcyone.de/SIT/bsc/

Here is the Wikipedia entry on star catalogues, which lists different ones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_catalogue

However, you could just make up a reasonably high number.

I'm guessing light pollution would have an affect on how many he can see as well -- the purple night sky of Metroplis would be a lot different than say... the sky over Smallville.

As for how many stars there actually are, I really don't know :p I always assumed countably infinite til the above posts.

How many? Depends on:

• Where you are (Smallville is probably relatively low on light pollution, so you can get dark enough nights to see the stars pretty well, as long as the house's exterior lights are off)
• How cloudy it is (you can't really see clouds at night, but they do block the stars)
• How bright the moon is (you'll see a lot more on a moonless night than you would on a full moon)
• What time of year it is (different star patters appear on different days as the world goes through its orbit)
• How good your eyes are (not just distance but night vision)

With Clark's eyes, he can probably find quite a few more than a human. He can't see in the dark, but he's got very good night vision, which means he should be able to see some of the dimmer stars that aren't normally visible. Telescopic vision will, of course, also be of help.

There's another trick. We live on the outer edges of the Milky Way galaxy. There are relatively few stars around us, but the closer in to the center of the galaxy, the more stars you'll see. If you're in the right place at the right time, (again, time of year matters, along with position on the globe) you should be able to see towards the center. Most people will see only a white streak in the sky because the stars are packed so closely (that streak, also called The Milky Way, is the reason for the galaxy's name), and I doubt that most of those stars are named on the list. Clark's eyes just might be good enough that he could pick out individual stars (at least on the edges). That would dramatically increase his count, assuming he managed to keep an accurate count.

So, how many? You got me. Sorry. I think you'd be safe picking whatever number suits you. If most humans can see 6-10 thousand, depending on various conditions, then Clark should be able to see 15-30 thousand, maybe more. He'd probably be able to see even more if he flew upwards, since the atmosphere makes stars harder to see (which is why observatories are placed on high mountains and why the Hubble was placed in orbit).

How long would counting take? At normal speed, hours. Maybe even more than one night. 30,000 seconds is 8 hours and 20 minutes. When stars are closer together, he could probably count a few per second, but if we're assuming he's going slowly and carefully, scanning as closely as he can, then there are going to be times when it goes a lot more slowly than that.

This, of course, means that he has to be able to stand in once place for that long, accurately remember his count even as it gets into the thousands, and remember whether or not he's counted any given star yet. Luckily, he has a super memory, but it's up to you to decide if even Clark's memory is up to that task.

At Super speed? Up to you. There's no defined limit to how fast he can move his eyes. We know he can move his body at least a hundred times faster than normal (see here for a quick look at just how fast a speeding bullet can be... 1000 meters/second seems to be a good number for a "speeding" bullet. In contrast, the world record for the 1000 meter dash is just under 132 seconds), but we don't know about just his eyes. Assuming he can move his eyes 100 times faster than normal, and assuming the figure of 30,000 seconds for counting, then he should be done in 5 minutes. That's based on a *lot* of assumptions, though, so feel free to make it shorter or longer as you see fit. All we really know about his eye speed is that he can read a whole stack of research notes in a few seconds.

So, there are some rough numbers to get you started, but ultimately, there's enough flexibility for you to say whatever you want.

Paul

It would also depend on how *long* he counted. As the night goes on, the earth rotates, and certain constellations "rise" and "set". So he'd count more if he did it in the space of one night than if he counted in the space of one hour.

I don't know about Clark, but to us normal mortals, the number of stars you can see on a clear, moonless night, in a dark area away from city lights, is about 2000. This according to a website cosponsored by CalTech and Jet Propulsion Laboratories.

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/EPO/cosmic_kids/AskKids/seestars.shtml

This fellow, an Australian astronomer, however, disagrees:

How many stars can you see at night?

It seems like millions, but it's less than a thousand! Astronomers measure the brightness of stars in Magnitudes. In a fairly dark suburb on an average night, the faintest star you can see is about Magnitude 5.5.

There are about 2,800 stars visible down to a brightness of Magnitude 5.5. Of course, these stars surround the entire globe of the Earth, so you'll be able to see only about half of these stars above your local horizon at any given time - say about 1,400 stars.

But there's an effect called "atmospheric extinction", which means that as a star gets low in the sky and close to the horizon, it gets lost from view because the light is absorbed by the extra atmosphere it has to travel through. Also, the number of stars you can see depends on your location. For example, in Australia, we can always see the Southern Cross, while people on the other side of the equator can see the Southern Cross only at certain times of the year, and then, only for a few hours.

At Australia's latitude, we can see more stars than anyone else on the planet - about 950 after dusk, dropping to about 800 in the early morning.

So because we in Australia can see more stars, and at such a convenient time as soon after sunset, perhaps we have a Cosmic Duty to look at the evening sky every night.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/homework/s95624.htm


Nan

Thanks a million (or should that only be a few thousand? ) everyone for answering!! I think given everyone's responses, I've melded them all together and come up with something. Thanks again, *so* much!

Sara

Even though you've got your answer, I thought I'd throw my two cents in:

It depends on the aperture and focal length of his telescopic vision...

It depends too on whether or not the milky way is visible in the night sky. Clark could probably resolve individual stars where a normal person can only see the 'milkiness' caused by the accumulation of the light from 100 billion stars.

Although, in the Northern hemisphere, when the milky way is overhead, you're looking out of the galaxy rather than towards the center (you need to be in the Southern hemisphere to see that properly).

Catherine - off to do a planetarium show, believe it or not.