>>40870654
>during night would be absurd, brighter than anywhere on earth.
i did a quick check on the effect of the atmosphere on the apparent magnitude of stars viewed at night and its not really that much. when looking out low towards the horizon, as most of the apollo photos were, the difference between looking through the earths atmosphere and no atmosphere at all is about a difference of 0.3-0.4 of a magnitude. For example, looking at Acturus on earth means it appears to be around a 0.15 magnitude star. thats fairly bright. with no atmosphere it would be about a 0.4 magnitude star. For reference Venus at most is almost -5, while Sirius, the brightest star is at most -1.6.
these figures would all increase by about the same amount, at most. if you're looking higher in the sky on earth, you're looking through less atmosphere to begin with which means less increase when looking through no atmosphere.