Naked eye colours - Arcturus?

[morls]

I'm not sure what to think of this, but tonight, at about 6.30, I noticed something I've never seen before without a telescope. It was a star flashing colours, phasing from white to red, (and maybe a flash of blue, but I'm not sure whether this was my eyes or my imagination...). It was so striking, and so obvious that I noticed it immediately - at first I thought it must have been an aeroplane, but it didn't move, and I realised it was a star. I'm pretty sure it was Arcturus.

It's a cold, clear evening, and I was about 20km north of Sydney. Is seeing this sort of thing common, or is it a case of my imagination playing tricks with me? As I said, I've never noticed anything this striking before, and it was a really beautiful sight...

Cheers

Stephen

[barx1963]

Most bright stars will do this when they are low and there is a bit of turblence. Sirius and Canopus are really noticeable being so bright. Arcturus I haven't seen flash but not something I take a lot of notice of.

Malcolm

[Suzy]

When Betelgeuse did it, it scared the heeby jeebies out of me. :face: I though it was going to blow up right there and then right in front of my face. :violin: I went so far as to phoning my astro buddy that night. As that star is so big and orange anyway, sitting low in the atmosphere, it got very big & very colourful and scary. This was before I understood about how the low horizon and atmospheric turbulence can affect stars. I felt a bit silly afterwards. :stupid: But if I hadn't asked someone, I wouldn't have known myself.:)