Imagine yourself floating in the infinite darkness of space, with the immense, shimmering band of the Milky Way stretching out above you, but when you look through the visor of your helmet, you are surprised to realize that there are no stars in space! All the countless points of light that turn the night sky on Earth into a sparkling sea have disappeared, but surely the stars should be even easier to see in space than on Earth? Why can't we see the stars in the boundless darkness of space? This fascinating question leads us to fundamental aspects of astrophysics, human perception and photography.