What's that blue star?
Posted: Wed Sep 28, 2011 5:36 am
As I was airing my bedsheets on my balcony this morning, I looked at the sky, of course. I'll bet practically everyone who visists this forum automatically glances at the sky at night to see what the sky looks like.
This morning, the skies were dark over Malmö. Well, they were comparatively dark. There were no clouds and there was no moon, and dawn was hours away. But the sky was light-polluted, as always, and it was sligthly misty, as usual. If anything, it was mistier than usual.
Overhead, Jupiter shone brightly. Its yellow-white light lodged itself in my brain while I was thinking of other things, like getting ready for the coming day.
That should be Jupiter above Venus at lower left in this image. This morning Jupiter was very much a solo player, and this is not the view from my balcony, but the yellow-white color of Jupiter was the same as in this picture.
As I was getting my bicycle out from the "bicycle cellar" where I keep it at night, the first thing I saw as I looked in the direction of the park straight ahead was a fairly bright star above the trees. Its color clashed so violently with the yellow-white light of Jupiter that was still bouncing around in my brain that I had to stop and stare, even though I was really in a hurry.
"What's that blue light?" my brain demanded. "Is it Sirius?"
It turned out to be Rigel. Sirius hadn't risen above the trees in the park yet.
After I had identified Rigel, my brain was satisfied. It ordered me to make up for lost time by cycling to the train station as fast as I could. I caught my train with a few minutes to spare.
But I'm still thinking of how blue Rigel looked this morning. Maybe it was the mist. The mist creates a small halo around the star and spreads it light over a larger area, probably enhancing its color in the same way as it is easier to see the colors of the stars in a telescope if you put the stars out of focus.
And the blue light of Rigel is still bouncing around in my brain.
Ann
This morning, the skies were dark over Malmö. Well, they were comparatively dark. There were no clouds and there was no moon, and dawn was hours away. But the sky was light-polluted, as always, and it was sligthly misty, as usual. If anything, it was mistier than usual.
That should be Jupiter above Venus at lower left in this image. This morning Jupiter was very much a solo player, and this is not the view from my balcony, but the yellow-white color of Jupiter was the same as in this picture.
"What's that blue light?" my brain demanded. "Is it Sirius?"
It turned out to be Rigel. Sirius hadn't risen above the trees in the park yet.
After I had identified Rigel, my brain was satisfied. It ordered me to make up for lost time by cycling to the train station as fast as I could. I caught my train with a few minutes to spare.
But I'm still thinking of how blue Rigel looked this morning. Maybe it was the mist. The mist creates a small halo around the star and spreads it light over a larger area, probably enhancing its color in the same way as it is easier to see the colors of the stars in a telescope if you put the stars out of focus.
And the blue light of Rigel is still bouncing around in my brain.
Ann