Twinkle, twinkle

[Bloodsign]

If you've ever seen something bright in the night sky and wondered if it might be Venus, remember the children's song, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Stars seem to twinkle due to surface temperature fluctuations, but a planet's brightness derives from reflected light so it remains constant and will not twinkle.

That being said, I noticed today that the stars in ED don't seem to twinkle, but they should. This may be due to my relatively low graphics setup, do they twinkle on your rigs, CMDRs?

If not, they should.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

They don't on mine.

 

[varonica]

If you've ever seen something bright in the night sky and wondered if it might be Venus, remember the children's song, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Stars seem to twinkle due to surface temperature fluctuations, but a planet's brightness derives from reflected light so it remains constant and will not twinkle.

That being said, I noticed today that the stars in ED don't seem to twinkle, but they should. This may be due to my relatively low graphics setup, do they twinkle on your rigs, CMDRs?

If not, they should.

Stars don't twinkle in space, the behaviour that makes them twinkle has nothing to do with the stars surface temperature fluctuations, it's to do with the atmosphere of the earth. Stars are so far away that they register as a point source in our retinas, so any temperature fluctuation is going to not be noticed over that vast distance, but a tiny disturbance on our atmosphere will make them twinkle due to refraction and reflection. Even with the best telescopes they can only just spot the dimming and brightening of a star caused by a planet passing in front of it, you really think our eyes are going to notice a surface temperature fluctuation?

Planets on the other hand are much closer and less susceptible to twinkle because they don't register as a point source.

Why Don't Planets Twinkle Too?

Unlike stars, planets don't twinkle. Stars are so distant that they appear as pinpoints of light in the night sky, even when viewed through a telescope. Because all the light is coming from a single point, its path is highly susceptible to atmospheric interference (i.e. their light is easily diffracted).


The much closer planets appear instead as tiny disks in the sky (a distinction more easily discerned with a telescope than with the naked eye). Their apparent sizes are usually larger than the pockets of air that would distort their light, so the diffractions cancel out and the effects of astronomical scintillation are negligible.

Why Do Stars Twinkle?

Why do stars twinkle in the night sky, but not planets? The reason lies in the paths light takes through our planet's atmosphere.

www.skyandtelescope.com

 

[varonica]

They don't on mine.

Good, they shouldn't!

 

[Bloodsign]

Stars don't twinkle in space, the behaviour that makes them twinkle has nothing to do with the stars surface temperature fluctuations, it's to do with the atmosphere of the earth. Stars are so far away that they register as a point source in our retinas, so any temperature fluctuation is going to not be noticed over that vast distance, but a tiny disturbance on our atmosphere will make them twinkle due to refraction and reflection. Even with the best telescopes they can only just spot the dimming and brightening of a star caused by a planet passing in front of it, you really think our eyes are going to notice a surface temperature fluctuation?

Planets on the other hand are much closer and less susceptible to twinkle because they don't register as a point source.

Why Do Stars Twinkle?

Why do stars twinkle in the night sky, but not planets? The reason lies in the paths light takes through our planet's atmosphere.

www.skyandtelescope.com

Thanks for the clarification! Looks like I got fed some bad info at some point. So we can expect twinkle only when we get atmospheric landings...