Dd you see stars during a night flight from an aircraft ?

[skysurfer]

I have seen this lots of times in flighht during night.
When the indoor cabin lighting is dimmed strongly it is rather easy to see stars through the aircraft windows.

The newer the aircraft, the better (although I did not fly on a 787 or 350 yet) due to larger windows, better glass (or composie material ?) quality and LED mood lighting appears less intrusive than fluorescent or halogen cabin lighting on older aircraft.
I even took photos by wrapping the camera in a blanket and putting the window shutter down to the upper side of the lens to prevent any reflections, pushing it towards the window, breathing out (which makes my hand more steady) and expose a few seconds.
Obviously, there should be no turbulence.

Here some results: http://skysurfer.eu/extremeastro.php

Mostly the sky is clear (above the clouds), unless one is flying in the tropics where cirrus clouds can reach to 15km (50000 ft, well above aircraft ceiling of 43000ft).
The sky appears darker when there is moonlight as there is less air above, stars very close to the horizon are easily visible.

What are your experiences ?

[phomer]

Skysurfer/Anonymous,

Yes, I have seen stars from an aircraft on many occasions, even those where I flew during the night.

I need to ask why you believe the sky looks darker at night with moonlight, I just can't say I have found that to be the case.

Regards

Paul

[AussieTrooper]

I agree with him. At lower altitudes, moonlight will scatter more. Higher up in a plane, the washout from the moon shouldn't be as bad.
The ultimate of this would be from space, where if you were looking directly away from the moon, it wouldn't affect you at all.

[Allan]

I've spent almost 30 years up the front of the aeroplane, and about 10000 hours of that at night. What thrills me the most is seeing bolides. Considering how much time I spend awake in the middle of the night, I'd be lucky to see more than a couple per year.

The other thing I enjoy is flying around the tops of thunderstorms during full moon. The moon light looks brilliant as it reflects off the cloud.

Sometimes we turn the flight deck lights down and I give my off sider a star tour. The transparency is exceptional at that altitude, but unfortunately the night vision doesn't develop very deep.

[bkm2304]

After a long, long time in the wilds of Winnipeg, Canada, one of the most memorable sights for me was looking out of the window on a QF from Honolulu to Sydney and seeing for the first time in a long time the Southern Cross rising.

Perhaps someone knows but I vaguely remember one or two comets being discovered by pilots/cabin crew over the years.

Richard

[Suzy]

Hi Richard, I have a great love for comets and observing them, so I took this interesting question over to my comet buddies and Terry Lovejoy was quick-within 10 mins to provide the following information. He has such a great knowledge of comets!

They are:

C/1970 K1 (White-Ortiz-Bolelli) and C/1961 O1 (Wilson-Hubbard). Both were obvious naked eye comets.

This is the account written by Wilson on his discovery from the plane, what a great read, this is gold!:
193361

And the link for how C/1970 was discovered is here:
http://cometography.com/lcomets/1970k1.html

[skysurfer]

Interesting discovery !

How did they get the position of the plane so accurate ? In 1961, GPS did not exist yet.

[nebulosity.]

While flying on a 787 from Nairobi to Bangkok two weeks ago I was pleased to see the southern cross and pointers shining brightly though my window, it was at about 1 o'clock in the morning and the lights were turned right down.

A cool sight, shame I didn't try some pics, yours look great!

Cheers
Jo

[MortonH]

I've seen a few pics taken from inside a plane over the years on Spaceweather.com

http://spaceweather.com/aurora/images2003/17nov03/Simpson2.jpg

http://spaceweather.com/conjunctions/images2008/01dec08a/Dave-Marshall2.jpg

http://spaceweather.com/nlcs/images2009/16jun09d/Bryan-Tobias1.jpg


When checking in for a flight I try to sit as far away from the wing as possible to maximise the view of the sky and minimise the effect of the light on the wing tip.

[chappo001]

Because I need t get my post numbers up so I can put something up on the 'For Sale' forum I need to post a few items. So this one is easy - of course you see stars from a plane at night, unless you a child you'll wreck your back and neck trying to actually identify much.

On a recent and my first trip deep into the Northern hemisphere it was buzz to see the North pole star for the first time and lucky because for the rest of the time I was there it was cloudy.

[deanm]

Back in the 1930s, -40s, -50s, -60s & -70s (before INS [now GPS] became standard), most passenger airliners (& military operators - heck, even on NASA Apollo missions!)) used an optical periscope in the cockpit/flight deck in order for the navigator (they had them in those days!) to triangulate position based on star sightings.

I don't believe this skill is taught nowadays, but they certainly relied on stars visible at night for localisation.

The process was essentially the same as we use even today for star alignments, but in reverse (i.e. determine Alt/Az of known stars in flight & triangulate), and without the benefit of computers!


Dean

[andyc]

I always enjoy night flight views. Some highlights... watching the Plough emerge from the northern horizon on a flight northwest home from Australia; photographing the aurora over Greenland; long or short high altitude sunrises/sunsets; a bright yellow bolide travelling the same direction as the plane, almost felt like you were flying alongside it for a moment!