Twinkling
Related Category: Astronomy: General
in astronomy: see seeing.
More on Twinkling
Seeing - in astronomy, the clarity with which stars and other celestial objects can be observed.
Twinkling is closely related to what astronomers call 'seeing' (atmospheric blurring of an image). Both are caused by the turbulent cells in the upper atmosphere: these are little pockets of air that have different density, temperature, humidity etc.
Twinkling of stars. Due to the Earth's atmosphere.
Seeing
The condition of the Earth's atmosphere at a particular time. If the sky is clear astronomers say there is good seeing.
TWINKLING
The twinkling of stars - their seeming to blink on and off (also called stellar scintillation) is caused by the Earth's atmosphere. Scintillation in caused when the star's light is distorted by the Earth's atmosphere.
Twinkling in the sky is a diamond star of 10 billion trillion trillion carats.
The twinkling of stars caused by inhomogeneities in the Earth's atmosphere.
SECONDARY COSMIC RAYS ...
Dim stars twinkling at the zenith when looked at directly indicate the worst seeing. Bright stars that do not twinkle even when 60 from the zenith (or 30 above the horizon) indicate excellent seeing.
When the seeing is ``good'', the amount of turbulence is small and the images are steady (little twinkling). ``Poor'' seeing occurs when the atmosphere is turbulent so the images shimmer and dance around (more twinkling).
In case you aren't sure, twinkling is the shimmering or blinking appearance that stars, especially bright stars, have.
Atmospheric turbulence (from rising hot air for example) causes the light to be shifted about (the ``twinkling'' phenomenon) which blurs out the images. This effect is called seeing.
Apart from twinkling due to the effects of our atmosphere stars appear fixed and constant to the untrained eye. Careful observations, some even done with the naked eye, show that some stars do in fact appear to change in brightness over time.
Because there is no twinkling of the images, astronomers using HST will also be able to measure the rapid variations of cosmic objects much more precisely than from the ground.
The diffuse star cluster -- described as "a curious twinkling, as if gossamers spangled with dewdrops"* -- has provided much yarn for sky lore. Of the many tales handed down, the story of "Berenice's Hair" wins modern acclaim.
The giant mirror telescope overcame the image-blurring twinkling from the atmosphere by using "adaptive optics" with rapidly adjusting mirrors, ...
The large-scale variations are seen by direct observation; the smallest are observed by fluctuations in the intensity of radio waves, similar to the "twinkling" of starlight caused by unsteadiness in the Earth's atmosphere.
Twentieth-century science has told us that those twinkling points scattered across the sky in their thousands are actually glowing balls of gas similar to our own Sun, immensely far away.
But the sky is filled with twinkling lights.Which ones are which? Stars fill the sky and with some imagination create the pictures that the ancient's named for their mythological gods.
Scintillation is the twinkling of stars (fluctuation of intensity) seen through a planet's atmosphere. Scintillation in caused when the star's light is distorted by the Earth's atmosphere.
As people watched these twinkling lights wheel across the sky night after night, year after year, they thought of them as the eyes or souls of the dead, as candles flickering against a tall background, ...
Scintillation The twinkling of stars, resulting from atmospheric disturbance.
Secondary Abbreviation for secondary mirror. Small mirror that directs the light from the primary mirror to the eyepiece.
Another term used to describe the twinkling of a star. It is caused by the Earth's atmosphere distorting the light from a star, mainly when the star is at a low altitude.
* (21/μ Dra) 4.91 Arrakis [Errakis, Al Rakis]:*: ar-rāqiş The dancer (twinkling?)
* (24/ν1 Dra) (or Kuma, see ν2 Dra) 4.89:* (25/ν2 Dra) 4.86 Kuma:* (32/ξ Dra) 3.75 Grumium [Genam] or Nodus Primus [Nodus I] ...
Present estimates are that it is so active geologically that its surface is completely redone on a timescale of about a million years---a twinkling of the eye on geological timescales.
Depending on the geometry, rays through different blobs can be focused to a single point. A sort of "twinkling" known as interplanetary scintillation can therefore be observed at 1 m wavelength.
As it is orbiting Earth outside the atmosphere it is neither subject to twinkling (distortion due to thermal turbulences of the air) nor to light pollution from artificial light sources on the Earth.
The scintillation in received radio emission; the equivalent of "twinkling" in visible light from the stars.
Radio Source ...
13 : The color of a star is due to its ...
surface temperature.
composition.
distance.
twinkling.
It is hard to mistake it for any other object as it is so bright. When near the horizon the effects of `twinkling' can give rise to amazing flashing colour effects which are often reported as peculiar objects, sometimes as UFOs.
Finally, NGC 3532 or the Wishing Well Cluster is an open cluster that got its name because, when observed through a telescope, it appears like many silver coins twinkling in a wishing well.
(b) Variations in the brightness of starlight (i.e., "twinkling") caused by turbulent strata very high in Earth's atmosphere. Scintillation increases with distance from the turbulent zone (cf. seeing). [H76]
Scintillation Counter ...
The light from the star is refracted slightly, and the stellar image dances around on the detector (or on our retina). This continual deflection is the cause of the well-known "twinkling" of stars.
Ultrashort imaging (to avoid smearing of the image by twinkling) in addition to occultations by the Moon reveal a pair of stars (one fourth magnitude, the other fifth) separated by but 0.12 seconds of arc, or around 10 Astronomical Units.
 See also: Light, Earth, Sky, Planet, Atmosphere
  
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