The Milky Way is quite a sight, but don’t expect it to match a long-exposure photograph like this one. Photo: Pixabay/theartofsounds2001

How Many Stars Are Really Visible?

Millions and billions… or at least a few dozen.

Tucked into a sleeping bag under the stars in the mountains of Northern California as a kid, I marveled at the Milky Way, a magical yet real cosmic river of fuzzy brightness punctuated by points of light both faint and bright. I’d count the sparkling gems in a patch of sky through towering pines, invariably losing track after…