Curious

[alhewett]

I'm by no means what you would call Space-savy, but I've always been interested in it. Tonight, I witnessed a star twinkling and shining many different colors like I had never seen one ever do before. Now, because I don't even remotely know what I'm talking about, I can only tell you that the star was in the Northeast sky. It was a bright star, and was twinkling very fast and many different colors. I'm wondering why a star would look like that, if the star itself is doing something, or if its the atmosphere causing its coloration.

[phaishazamkhan]

Reckon the many different colors come from the light being scattered by the upper atmosphere. As for the intensity of the twinkling, probably the same thing.

[Sam5]

I'm by no means what you would call Space-savy, but I've always been interested in it. Tonight, I witnessed a star twinkling and shining many different colors like I had never seen one ever do before. Now, because I don't even remotely know what I'm talking about, I can only tell you that the star was in the Northeast sky. It was a bright star, and was twinkling very fast and many different colors. I'm wondering why a star would look like that, if the star itself is doing something, or if its the atmosphere causing its coloration.

Were you in clear skies and a very cold night?

There is a place where I've seen the stars go "out" go dark (one at a time). Due to very clear skies and cold atmosphere. The atmosphere is supposed to be working somewhat like a prism, causing splitting up the more or less "white" starlight into the various colors. Where they went "out", I had to close one eye at a time to see this.

Some guy in the 19th Century did a test with a mirror and he said that most stars go "out" or dark but we don't notice it because it's only for a brief time and our eyes don't notice it. So he looked at the stars through a mirror and wiggled the mirror so the starlight would hit different parts of his retina and not leave must of a lasting impression, so that he could see them going dark.

[Sam5]

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/sub.../twinkle.shtml