Dave Krecek, age 12, Omaha, Nebraska,

Where are the stars in the daytime,?

Rain or shine, day or night, the stars are always shining way above our heads. They are there when brightest noon shines down from the clear blue sky, here are people who claim to have seen the stars in the daytime from the bottom of a deep well. This may be true. You too can see the stars in the daytime when conditions are just right,

This could happen for you during a solar eclipse. There you will wait for a total eclipse of the sun, hoping for a clear sky. Gradually the dark moon will bite into the radiant face of the sun. Comes a moment when the shining face will be eclipsed, blotted out by the moon. Suddenly you will see a glowing has  around the moon, This is the corona, the glowing gases of the sun that reach far above its surface,

All this you will see if the sky is free from clouds. The corona of the total eclipse is one of the most magnificent of all heavenly spectacles, If you can tear your gaze from it, you will notice that the world has become dark. The light of the sun has been blotted out, In that moment, you oan look at the daytime sky and see the stars,

The stars, then, are always there in the sky, Only the radiant light of the sun hides them from us, They are out dazzled by the sunshine glimmering through the air above, for the sun lights up the air above the earth. Seen from the moon, the solid earth may well have a halo even from the dark night side. This is the sunlight shimmering though the earth's filmy atmosphere.

We see the result of this after the sun has set. Its rays no longer light the solid ground but we have a little while of gentle twilight, The sunbeams are still lighting up the air above our heads, During the day, this sunlit air reaches high above the earth, The atmosphere is full of dancing sunbeams. Dust, water, vapor and particles of gas spilt the blue rays of light and scatter light and scatter them to color the heavens, All this light is too much for the distant stars. Their tiny pinpoints of light cannot break through,

Once in a while we can see the moon in the daytime. If we know just where to look, we can sometimes see the planet Venus in the daytime But the distant stars are far, far out‑dazzled by the sun. They come out only when the sun has set and its twilight beams no longer cut through the upper air.. Much of this razzle‑dazzle is shaded when we see the sky from the bottom of a deep well. Still more is cut off when the dark moon eclipses the radiant sun, At such time, we can see with our own eyes that the stars are safely in their places, day and night.