Stars, Trees and the Universe

Bäume im Sauerland · Foto Klein-Hitpaß

These are trees, not too many, not too dense, in a German forest. But maybe you’d better think of swan lake, and you look around in your imgaination, all around. Wherever you look into the distance, you see trees.
   Then you switch subject. It’s night, a clear night, perhaps in the countryside. No moon, no city-type light halo. Stars twinkle. With a bit of luck and a while for adaptation you find the Milky Way.

Here the question: Why can’t you look through the trees, but you can look through the stars – into the universe? After a couple of hundred meters all you see is a wall of trees. But the endless universe doesn’t appear all white of stars? Why not a sheet of paper, with some lighter spots, the stars nearby?
   Why the sky is dark?
Is the reason »curved spacetime«? And your straight sight does not turn the curve but looks out into empty space? Should we switch to ADS_n? I must be joking. 
Stu?

This post is dedicated to Stu.

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