Most Probably A Lot Of Stupid Questions...

[Akyra]

....But needs less stupid answers.

If the sun is in the West then why can we not see anything in the sky to the East?

Why is the sky light in the Eastern direction when the Sun is in the West?

If a GOTO scope was pointing towards a DSO in the East as the Sun is setting in the West would you be able to see anything at all?

Which planet will get voted out of the Solar System this week?

Forget that last one!

[Kain]

....But needs less stupid answers.

If the sun is in the West then why can we not see anything in the sky to the East?

Why is the sky light in the Eastern direction when the Sun is in the West?

If a GOTO scope was pointing towards a DSO in the East as the Sun is setting in the West would you be able to see anything at all?

1) Not sure what you mean? If your talking DSO's etc, It's simply too bright! The sun might be in the west, but the whole of the daytime side of the earth is getting lit up.

2) Same answer as Q1 The light is spread out over the area, however the skies darked from the east when the sun goes down (earths rotation)

3) DSO's no, but you would probably see Venus and Jupiter as they are bright enough to see in the day if you know where to look.

Kain

[Andrew*]

the first two are due to atmosphere. On the moon, which has no atmosphere, you would be able to see stars/DSOs etc in broad daylight, but on the earth, the atmosphere scatters the light everywhere, making the entire sky light.

As for DSOs - try it out! But don't bother, because everything except, as Kain says, bright objects such as jupiter and venus, will be washed out by the even brighter sky. The difference made will be too slight to distinguish.

Andrew

[Vega]

Following on from that... our atmosphere scatters the suns light so much that it contunies to light up the atmosphere well after sunset.... aka twilight. The summer months being a fine example with the sun not setting very far below the horizon, twilight can last almost all night on the Northern horizon.

Vega

ps ... you can never have a stupid question, only a stupid answer