I understand why we can’t see stars during the day: the sun illuminates the atmosphere and effectively blots them out. But why can’t we see low earth orbit satellites, which are not exactly “outside” the atmosphere? If they’re inside, shouldn’t we see them reflecting sunlight back to us?
It’s not a matter of in front or behind. It’s just brightness.
Presumably, it’s possible to see them or the stars anyway, just by subtracting out the blue glow of the air, but normal human eyes can’t do that.