stars in the sky or on the sky?

0In0-

0 I agree with GG, but it seems to me that I have seen examples with 'on' in some works of the poets of yore. I may be imagining things, but 'on' just doesn't sound so strange to me. A brief Google search didn't bring up any examples. 0-

0 I'm guessing that if we wanted to be technical about it, you'd say "through the sky". In example: I saw the stars through the sky. 0-

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01cite10Bartholomew Esquire12cite10I'm guessing that if we wanted to be technical about it, you'd say "through the sky". In example: I saw the stars through the sky.12blockquote

10What an astonishingly, non-natural thing to say!02br
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00The "sky" is what's up there, not the atmosphere. 0-

0 05002br
00The more you know. 0240hrefhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sky

0Bartholomew, was there something in that link that sems to support your suggestion of "the stars through the sky"? I agree with Grammar Geek -- it seems very unnatural.02br
02br
00We generally refer to "the stars 01i00in02i00 the sky."0-

0 Think of the stars as an object, and the sky as a pane of glass. I would look through the glass to see the object, vis-a-vis "stars behind the sky". Which is to say, I look at the "stars through the sky", or "behind the sky" would be on a technical scale: correct. 02br
00 For as far as the definition goes, the sky does not actually contain the stars, so they're not in the sky.02

0Hi BE, do you actually see this in many scientific articles or books? I am not so convinced by the deduction from the red part.02br
02br
00Putting a ball inside a box, although the material of box does not contain the ball (they are just surrond the ball), we still say the ball is in the box.02br
02br
00Anyway, maybe different understandings about the sky

0 01blockquote

01cite10Osee12cite10Putting a ball inside a box, although the material of box does not contain the ball (they are just surrond the ball), we still say the ball is in the box.12blockquote

10We say "in the box" because it is actually being contained by boundaries. The stars are beyond the boundaries of the sky, thus the

0BE: Then what do you mean by the sky? Do you imply that stars are surrounded by vacuums?01blockquote

01cite10Bartholomew Esquire12cite11blockquote

11cite20Osee22cite20Putting a ball inside a box, although the material of box does not contain the ball (they are just surrond the ball), we still say the ball is in