What am I seeing? Strange light in the sky.

[Joel Clifton]

I just saw a strange thing in the sky. It was approximately the brightness of Serius, but it was flickering very noticably, and as it flickered it changed color from reddish to bluish. The flickering was completely random. I watched it for about ten minutes, went in my apartment, and then ten minutes later went back out, and it hasn't moved (except with the other stars), so it's not a meteor, airplane or satellite. It wasn't just a star in front some warm air, because first of all there weren't any buildings that could be venting warm air, and also I moved and it didn't change.

It's near the SW horizon, and I'm in western Ohio.

EDITED: This is about ten minutes later. I just went out for a third time, and it's still there, flickering as much as ever, and a bit lower in the sky, just as much as it should be if it were a star or something.

I am totally confused. What in the heck could that thing be?

[George]

When atmospheric conditions are calm, refraction of a star's light will cause you to see alternating colors.

I don't know without more information which star you were observing. However, you can go to Your Sky (http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/) and find it, hopefully. Vega is fairly bright and up tonight. Its magnitude is zero, and is the reference magnitude star for all the rest.

[Edit: Oops. you did say sw... Maybe Arcturus or Spica?]

[Joel Clifton]

I guess it IS Serius. Trees were in the way, but I moved, and there was Betelgeuse where it should be. It was also flickering a bit. Stars a bit farther from the horizon were not flickering.

I've looked up at the sky an awful lot in my life, and I've seen stars twinkle, but this was far beyond simple twinkling. It was more like flashing, not to mention the changing colors.

Strange I've never seen this before.

[pmcolt]

It's definitely strange to see. Freaked me out the first time I saw it, too. (Similar situation; trees were in the way at first.)

[George]

While in college, long ago, we heard a radio announcement of a reported UFO sighting. It was simply this same situation. The continous changing of colors by the star made it quite a treat. Since then, I've noticed it many times.

[Sam5]

I guess it IS Serius. Trees were in the way, but I moved, and there was Betelgeuse where it should be. It was also flickering a bit. Stars a bit farther from the horizon were not flickering.

I've looked up at the sky an awful lot in my life, and I've seen stars twinkle, but this was far beyond simple twinkling. It was more like flashing, not to mention the changing colors.

Strange I've never seen this before.

On cold nights with high winds well above ground, stars will flicker more than usual and will appear to change colors. There is a place in New Mexico, around Klein’s Corners, where on a cold windy night the stars will flicker so much they briefly go dark. This can be seen with one eye closed. I think it is the high altitude winds that cause this extreme twinkling effect. But it doesn’t happen every night.

[Chainsaw1]

It is refraction off of water vapor or high altitude Ice particles in the upper atmophere, you can even see it over bodies of water.
It is simular to the process that forms sun dogs.

[aurora]

See

http://www.badastronomy.com/bitesize/twinkle.html

for more.