flashy star?

am i the only one who saw this? no one i know seems to have been looking at the sky last night.

i was looking at orion when i noticed a star flashing colours red, then orange then finaly blue to white. im no astroliger but ive never noticed this in my 20 years of star gazing,any thoughts guys n gals? did anyone see what i describe? also orion's . . .. ?foot?. . .?nearist to that star did the same but not as intensly.

just thought id ask the experts . . . and nut jobs(im one)to get your veiws
apreaciate any replys cheers
mr 5ive-0(h)

anyone?
it continued flashing in that patern (sutbley) until the clouds covered the sky.please help me ats.
mr 5

reply to post by 5ive the light

Sirius, brightest star visible in the night sky, part of the constellation Canis Major (“greater dog”) as Alpha Canis Majoris; popularly called the Dog Star. Sirius is white in color but its brilliance makes it scintillate or appear to change colors as it twinkles from unsteady air in Earth’s atmosphere. Sirius is best seen in the night sky during the winter months of January through March.

encarta.msn.com...




[edit on 3/6/2009 by Phage]

I did see this! I thought it was kinda strange. Any idea why it was twinkeling??
-E-

Yeay,I too like looking at the stars, have an amateur scope etc.
Here we get chemed all the time, we do not see the sky that much.

But,is it one of the stars IN orion you are refering to?
I have noticed that they have started to twinkel more visual so to speak.
Is that wht you mean ??

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by 5ive the light

 

Sirius, brightest star visible in the night sky, part of the constellation Canis Major (“greater dog”) as Alpha Canis Majoris; popularly called the Dog Star. Sirius is white in color but its brilliance makes it scintillate or appear to change colors as it twinkles from unsteady air in Earth’s atmosphere. Sirius is best seen in the night sky during the winter months of January through March.

encarta.msn.com...




[edit on 3/6/2009 by Phage]

If it is the same one I saw it was orange in color. I think I have seen the dog star, and it is certianly white. At first I thought I was looking at Mars because the "star" was so orange.
-E-

Fluctuations in the Earth's atmosphere can cause stars to appear to change color, especially in stars close to the horizon. I frequently see a star on the eastern horizon flashing colors, and I've also seen Betelgeuse (Orion's left foot) change from orange (when the sky was extremely clear) to white (as the clouds started rolling in). Variable stars will actually fluctuate in their brightness, but most of the flashing, twinkling, color-changing is an illusion of our atmoshere.

Happy stargazing!

Betelgeuse is Orion's left shoulder.
A red supergiant classed star.

[edit on 3/6/2009 by Phage]

I've noticed this in the Southern Sky low on horizon for a few weeks now. Driving on the Highway headed south one night it looked like a plane coming in for a landing not too far but as I headed further South it was still there after 20 miles. When I got home I looked out back to the South and it was still there, then about 11pm it was gone only having moved a few feet west . It is NOT the very bright star / planet that some say is Venus, and I do still see the very bright star in the SE under Orions Belt while this South object is visible. It pulsates and dims to black then seems like headlights again strobing red white blue green and gold. Through binoculors I noticed faint shooting lights coming from it and going toward it a few nights ago.

It seems like it's in our atmosphere so I"m not sure if everyone sees it in same place / way. I'm in NE Florida and this object is in the South sky starting at about 8pm low on horizon with no other stars that I can see from here, around it.

Oops! I'm full of it. Betelgeuse isn't Orion's foot; it's considered the "armpit" LOL! My mistake. Anyway, I saw one of Orion's stars appear to change color, at least I can say for certain that it was definitely in Orion! Sirius is very bright, off to the east and lower than Orion.

reply to post by Phage


Thanks, Phage. I realized my mistake about the same time you did.

Your avatar...that isn't Dr. Lizardo, is it? Just wondering...

reply to post by awake1


That would be canopus, the second brightest star in the sky. It's in a southern celestial hemisphere constellation normally seen by folks in the southern hemisphere, but people living in the southern of the US in states like florida can spot it too. It never gets very high for us, even here in florida, so it's always scintillating heavily.

[edit on 6-3-2009 by ngchunter]

reply to post by ngchunter


ahhhh .. thank you !

thanks alot guys, info is very much apreiciated. can i just ask how fluctuations in the atmosphere would not change the star green also? if it was refracting light. and yes it was the one that looked like a plane taking all day(night) to land. i'v had the feeling for a few years now after spotting a red beam in a group of three stars that star is part of ,aboot 5-8 year ago that mabey there could be a war of battle going on and ive watched them ever since.
my next question:
any one seen the beam?
love and light
5

[edit on 6-3-2009 by 5ive the light]

I know of 2 sources that say starships are parked in the positions of many stars and they turn on strobe lights, and flash different colors. I know I laughed too when i first heard it. The sources are Sheldan Nidle at paoweb.com and Patrick Bellringer of fourwinds10.com. If you e-mail Bellringer, he will answer. He's never failed to answer my questions. I don't know if the ships impersonating stars info. is true, but i find it curious that some stars flash colors and some nearby don't.

reply to post by Sargoth


How much a star twinkles depends on its brightness, actual color, and the atmospheric conditions. Very bright white stars, can twinkle a lot and show a lot of color. Dimmer, red stars not so much. A star high in the sky may not appear to twinkle but as it gets closer to the horizon and its light travels through a thicker atmosphere it will. Planets usually do not twinkle at all but again, depending on the atmospheric conditions, they can, brilliantly as Venus was a couple of weeks ago.

[edit on 3/7/2009 by Phage]

Orion might be the most popular constellation because it is easily recognized.
Betelgeuse, Orion's armpit, is a red super giant that changes its apparent magnitude from 0.2 and 1.5 in 6 months or up to 6 years. I have noticed that at times it seems to change slightly in color from orange to a reddish-orange but I don't know if this is from the pulsating star or Earth's atmosphere.
Constellation of Orion

Rigel is the star of Orion's left foot and is a blue super giant giving off a bluish-white light. It is usually pictured as perched upon a fainter star, Cursa (Beta Eridani), which represents the hunter's foot stool. Viewing the stars Rigel or Sirius when they are close to the horizon they can appear to twinkle and sometimes, depending on Earth's atmosphere, even flash between the colors white, blue and green. They seem to catch your attention from a peripheral view or out of the corner of your eye.

Using a pair of binoculars you can see the Orion nebula that is just below the three stars that make up Orion's belt.
Orion's Belt

Awake1, although being a little vague, appears to be describing the planet Venus. Venus is slowly catching up to Earth for an inferior conjunction on 3/26/09. For the past few weeks Venus has been very bright in the SW sky setting earlier each night.