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How Many Stars?

Steve's Observation

Steve MacLean made the following observations from orbit while crossing the continent of Australia.

The results of this star count were taken with dark adapted vision (15 minutes of dark adaption) prior to making the observations.

The average number of field stars counted out of the plane of the galaxy was 3. The average number of stars counted in the plane of the galaxy is 13.5.

Steve's observations were made using a tube which had a radius of 1.25 cm and a length of
28 cm.

Using a value of 8 stars (averaged over the entire sky) the number of individual stars that could be seen with the unaided eye is approximately 8000.

That's a lot of stars!!!!