The number of visible stars you can see with your eye on the clearest possible evening if you observed from both the north and south hemispheres on the Earth is about 9100.
Astronomers measure the brightness of stars by their apparent magnitudes .
The total number of stars in the Milky Way is something like a few trillion by the way. The point is that the number of stars we can see from the Earth depends on what we use to view them with. They eye can see up to perhaps 9000-12,000 give or take, and depending on local atmospheric conditions and your vision quality. If you use a pair of binoculars, you would see probably 10 times that number. Dr. Sten Odenwald Return to Ask the Astronomer .