All about stars viewed through a telescope, binoculars, or with the naked eye. Topics include magnitude, luminosity, and the types of stars including why variable stars are so interesting.
When you’re looking up at the night sky, you might notice some stars stand out as brighter and different in color from others. Most stars in space are ‘main sequence’ types, like our Sun. But, the standouts we see are the ‘giants’. Stars are celestial bodies that emit light and radiation. How many different types … Read more
Why do stars twinkle? Stars appear to twinkle because of the atmospheric turbulence that’s everywhere blanketing the Earth, causing the pinpoint of light emitted by the star to flicker. Stars twinkle because of turbulence in our atmospheric — different currents, temperature, and density between atmospheric layers. These irregularities distort the starlight passing through, causing its … Read more
There are a total of 88 constellations in the night sky. A few constellations are unique to ‘down under’. Here, the sky is ‘upside down’ compared to the northern hemisphere and groups of stars display particular patterns of interest because of the orientation and cultural significance. I mentioned how the Moon appears upside down in … Read more
Why target variable stars? It helps to improve your ability to distinguish faint objects when out stargazing. Variable stars are high on the scale of star magnitude and practicing to observe these increases your eye’s sensitivity for detecting brightness differences. John Percy authored “Understanding Variable Stars”. The multitude of types makes them interesting. Using your … Read more