Why do stars seem much brighter when I’m looking at them from the corner of my eye?

Question

Why do stars seem much brighter when I’m looking at them from the corner of my eye?

In: Biology

Answer 1

When you look at them via the corner of your eye, you’re using the “rods” part of your retina. The rods are much more light sensitive than the cones at the center of your vision. However, rods don’t see much in the way of color. So you have the light sensitive but not color sensitive rods around your periphery and the color sensitive but not light sensitive cones in your central vision.