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Old November 20th 03, 08:58 AM
CR
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"Bill Nunnelee" wrote in message
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We would need a location and time to say for sure, but it's probably

Sirius.
The star itself isn't intrinsically multi-colored though. Its light is
being briefly broken into its component wavelengths as it passes through
turbulence in our atmosphere. Bright stars often display this seemingly
more radical form of twinkling when near the horizon.

Thanks for your response that seems reasonable that it's light was being
broken into different parts, I was wondering how I could see all the
different colors with the naked eye without the star's light being refracted
off of some particles floating in space around the star. What is breaking
apart the light into component wavelengths? The star's location was half-way
up from the horizon between the horizon and the constellation Orion,
directly below the belt. It shimmered white, red, green, purplish, blue and
was brilliant - it happened to be the brightest star in the sky on a very
clear night and I viewed it from the top of a hill with few lights around.
It did twinkle different colors as you suggested