Saw a star pulsating last night with blueish and reddish tints

[OutOfTheBox73]

I live in San Diego and while walking hom I noticed this star towards the south/ southeast pulsating rapidly. I love staring into the night sky and never saw one that pulsated so violently and with different colors. It was near the constellation Orion but south and lower in the sky...but large enough to see the pulsating with the naked eye. Any ideas?

 

[origin]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>I live in San Diego and while walking hom I noticed this star towards the south/ southeast pulsating rapidly. I love staring into the night sky and never saw one that pulsated so violently and with different colors. It was near the constellation Orion but south and lower in the sky...but large enough to see the pulsating with the naked eye. Any ideas? <br />Posted by OutOfTheBox73</DIV><br /><br />stars low in the sky tend to twinkle or pulse differnt colors due to refraction from that atmosphere.&nbsp; Basically it is the differences in the temp and density of the air.&nbsp; Nothing out of the ordinary.</p><p>edited to add:&nbsp; If the star was below Orion it was probably Sirius which is the brightest star in the sky and located near the horizon.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>stars low in the sky tend to twinkle or pulse differnt colors due to refraction from that atmosphere.&nbsp; Basically it is the differences in the temp and density of the air.&nbsp; Nothing out of the ordinary.edited to add:&nbsp; If the star was below Orion it was probably Sirius which is the brightest star in the sky and located near the horizon. <br />Posted by origin</DIV><br /><br />oriigin is correct. It is undoubtedly Sirius. It is the brightest star in the sky. The pulsing is caused by small parcels of air between you and the top of the atmosphere acting like little prisms. The lower in the sky a star is, the more air there is between you and the star, and when there's a large contrast in&nbsp;temperature (like in the evening when the ground is still warm from daytime sun) it tends to be most active. It's easier to notice with brighter stars, and the top 10 or 20 brightest stars have enough light for the eye to perceive color.</p><p>MW</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[Saiph]

The fact that Sirius is so bright also means that any color change it has due to the 'twinkling' is going to be quite noticable.&nbsp; Just the other day I mistook Sirius for a plane with it's red/green running lights blinking.&nbsp; It was only the fact that it didn't look right (erratic pattern...saw them all at once) that I was able to figure out it was sirius, since a faint cloud cover and light polution washed out any other stars I'd use for reference. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>The fact that Sirius is so bright also means that any color change it has due to the 'twinkling' is going to be quite noticable.&nbsp; Just the other day I mistook Sirius for a plane with it's red/green running lights blinking.&nbsp; It was only the fact that it didn't look right (erratic pattern...saw them all at once) that I was able to figure out it was sirius, since a faint cloud cover and light polution washed out any other stars I'd use for reference. <br />Posted by Saiph</DIV><br /><br />I thought I had mentioned that but I forgot... </p><p>It takes an object of about 2nd magnitude to provide enough photons for color to be detected by the cones in the human eye. Objects dimmer than that are only seen by the rods, in black and white.</p><p>Sirius is some 200 times brighter than that threshhold so there's plenty of light to perceive colors.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[origin]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>I thought I had mentioned that but I forgot... It takes an object of about 2nd magnitude to provide enough photons for color to be detected by the cones in the human eye. Objects dimmer than that are only seen by the rods, in black and white.Sirius is some 200 times brighter than that threshhold so there's plenty of light to perceive colors. <br />Posted by MeteorWayne</DIV><br /><br />Cool, I did not know that, makes sense though.</p><p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Saiph]

you did mention it MW...I just wanted to provide a little tidbit of my experience with the 'rainbow star' that is Sirius <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[AstroHurricane001]

I once saw Capella, another bright star, pulsating in the northeast, with red, green, and blue colours. So yes, it was probably Sirius. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[adrenalynn]

Orion's belt very close to "points" to Sirius.&nbsp; An easy way to identify it. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>