Why Can't You See Stars from an Airplane at Night?

While flying over a metropolitan or densely populated area at night, its likely that you wont see stars from the airplane window. This is because the excessive artificial lighting (i.e., light pollution) of the city can light up the sky above it, making it glow. Such luminance of the night sky is called skyglow. It is, as you might have guessed, a prominent side effect of light pollution. You will also have a hard time finding stars in the night sky through an airplane window if the full moon is out, because on those days, the moons luminance of the night sky is at its peak, which makes it difficult to reach our eyes. Last but not least, the artificial lights inside the airplane cabin can also make it harder to see stars through the window in the night sky. Your eyes are adjusted to the lighting of the cabin, so it becomes difficult for them to perceive the faint, low-intensity glow of distant stars.