Why the sky is so dark on cruise ships at night as haunting video shows ‘terrifying’ reality

When you think of the sights on a cruise ship, it probably consists of sunny skies, blue seas and a bright top deck with a glistening pool.

It’s unlikely your mind jumps to a picture of absolute darkness.

Yet, while onboard passengers do typically get to experience those sights during the daytime, a haunting TikTok video previously went viral for showing the ‘terrifying’ reality: that it’s absolutely pitch black at night.

Many people were left freaked out by the darkness of a cruise ship’s surroundings once the sun goes down. But there were also others who were left baffled by why the sky above appeared so very, very dark - without a single star in sight.

Yeah, you might think being out at sea and away from civilisation would make for the perfect place for stargazing, but it seems that’s not necessarily the case.

It all just that seems, well, a little bit weird. But when you think about it, it does make sense,

Sure, the cruise ships are out in the middle of the ocean with no other light around. But the floating hotels create their own light pollution, so it totally impacts the visibility of the stars above.

Astrophysicist Hakeem M Oluseyi explained stargazing is only going to work if the deck lights are turned off.

“The lights can be so bright that you can't really see the dimmer objects, and most of the cool stuff is dim,” he told Business Insider.

But when those lights are down, the view can be incredible.

“I have been literally all over the world to dark sky locations," Oluseyi added, "but, man, being out in the middle of the ocean - and when they turn off the deck lights - it is one of the best."

Some cruise ships will turn off those deck lights to allow passengers to see the skies better at night, but different cruise lines will have their own policies.

“How come there is no moonlight or stars?” baffled users asked on TikTok posted by 'chasingthedream.hj'.

While one mistakenly wrote: “I would enjoy the stars from the lack of city light pollution.”

As another added: “It only looks that black because the cruise ship is so bright and your eyes and the camera are adjusted for the lights. If all the lights turned off, you would see a sky full of stars.”

So, yeah, it’s basically so terrifyingly dark all around the ship due to how incredibly bright it is onboard.