Twinkling stars

[Pertti]

Introduction: If I look on a distant (lighted) street light (at night) through a pair of ordinary binoculars, simultaneously moving the binoculars (in circles), I can see the light flicker at the (double) frequency of the power supply. Nothing strange about that.
Question: If I use the same technique to watch different objects in the night sky (planets?, stars?), I can sometimes see them flicker, but in different colors. Is this caused by the atmosphere here on earth, or is it related to the objects?

[Dave Mitsky]

What you're seeing is known as prismatic dispersion and is a consequence of our atmosphere.

Dave Mitsky

[Planetwatcher]

Both, plus other factors such as dopler shift, and temperture of the object in question.

Stars are in fact different colors, ranging from brown the coolest, through red, orange, yellow, pale white, blue, and violet the hottest.

[Dave Mitsky]

Originally posted by Planetwatcher@Jan 5 2004, 02:47 PM
Both, plus other factors such as dopler shift, and temperture of the object in question.

Stars are in fact different colors, ranging from brown the coolest, through red, orange, yellow, pale white, blue, and violet the hottest.
Well, that's true but not germane to the change in colors which is caused by prismatic dispersion.

Dave Mitsky