People often ask if stars are up there, beyond our blue sky, during the day.

The answer is surely yes, because Earth is a planet in space, surrounded on all sides by stars. Here’s a view looking southeast at mid-morning today or tomorrow. Of course you really can’t see the stars, but they are there.

The constellation behind the sun around now is Aquarius the Water Bearer. This is true each year between February 16 and March 12. The stars cannot be seen because of the glare of the sun. But sometimes when there is a total solar eclipse and the sun’s light is blocked, stars can be seen in the daytime sky.

There are other constellations up during the day today. They are the same ones, in the same relationship to each other, that you will see at nighttime six months from now … when Earth has moved halfway around in its orbit of the sun … and our night sky, not our daytime sky, is pointing out on this region of the galaxy.