Bartholomew EsquireI don't know why you're just shoving a popularity contest onto me.
Sorry, Bartholomew. I didn't mean to shove a popularity contest onto you. I absolutely have no such intention. I was just trying to quote how other astronomers use the word.
Bartholomew Esquire Except we CAN trace the boundary of "the upper atmosphere of the Earth". Just because most humans use that whole simplified complex using words like "a few, many, a lot" &c, does not mean that this is the correct method for a more technical setting.
I agree with you that there is a boundary between the upper atmosphere of the Earth and outer space. I think you are talking about the Kármán line, located at an altitude of 100 km. Methods of propulsion are different above and below the line. Aeronautics only applies below the line within the atmosphere and that is about how planes fly. Study on how to propel objects (e.g. rockets) to fly above that height is called Astronautics.
However, as you have mentioned, it applies to the "atmosphere", not the "sky". The definition is useful for engineering purposes. A technical definition for such a setting is not applicable to astronomy. The astronomers often talk about the sky just like it is a canvas with all sorts of objects in it. The language of the astronomers is necessarily different from that of the engineers specializing in Aeronautics/Astronautics. You can't say which one is correct. They are just meaningful within their own area of study. For day-to-day English, I would certainly use "in the sky". "On the sky" would be better in certain contexts.
Bartholomew Esquire The dictionaries nowadays are what define the words, so this simplified pretty idea of "It's what I see when I look up" just doesn't cut it when you're talking about things that lay beyond the Earth's atmosphere.
The dictionaries have multiple entries for a single word. What you mentioned is just one entry from one particular dictionary.
Cambridge and Longman define "sky" as
the area above the Earth, in which clouds, the sun, etc. can be seen.
The American Heritage has the following it the third entry of "sky":
The celestial regions; the heavens: stars in the southern sky.
I am quite certain the biggest dictionary OED would certainly have an entry with similar meaning, but I do not have that with me right now.
Bartholomew Esquire I'll get some sources in a few days, maybe contact someone. IN that mean time, I'm not going to argue about, since we'll have a somewhat definite conclusion in a few days.
No problem. I am more than happy to read about different view points.
It is not a problem to disagree as long as we focus on the subject itself and can support our own views with logical arguments. That's the whole point for a discussion forum like this, isn't it?