On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:04:44 -0700 (PDT), brucegooglegroups
wrote:

On occasion I see color in stars when viewing with binoculars. For
example, Arcturus is white with some blue and red. Is this true color
or chromatic abberation?

What you describe is chromatic aberration. Binoculars will help you see
the actual star color as well, mainly in the core of the image. Stars
nearly always show colors with low saturation. In the absence of
chromatic aberration, they will show as a single color. If you see
multiple colors, it's CA. Some of that will be from the binoculars, but
some may be from atmospheric refraction as well- especially if the star
is low in the sky or the seeing is very poor.
_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com