Coloured stars

[wookie1965]

Interesting article in Sky at Night magazine about coloured stars especially green ones, some great examples if you can check them out.

[ollypenrice]

Interesting. I don't have easy access to a copy but I don't recall observing a star I'd call green. This doesn't mean there aren't any, of course. It just means it's homework time!

It's interesting that the sun's peak emission is in green but by the time light has passed through the atmosphere the peak has moved to the green-blue border. But nobody describes the sun as looking greenish-blue and it gives what we call by definition 'white light.'

I'd be interested if you could pass on the coordinates or catalogue numbers of one or two green stars.

Olly

[wookie1965]

Are you allowed to post photo copy's of magazines here?

[ollypenrice]

57 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Are you allowed to post photo copy's of magazines here?

I'd have thought not but I don't know.

Olly

[wookie1965]

Only other thing is email that I can think of.

[MartinB]

Wikipedia - green star (astronomy)

One or two stars can give the illusion of being green in contrast to nearby stars apparently

[Pig]

5 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

Are you allowed to post photo copy's of magazines here?

Go for it..... it’s not like your being paid ? it will be interesting to see.

[wookie1965]

[Ed in UK]

Interesting, I've never been able to really make out any colour detail other than Mars and the banding on Jupiter. I can see a difference between Rigel and Betelgeuse but that's about my limit. As for Blue and Green I can safely say that I've never seen those colours. I'll have a look when the skies clear again.

Thanks for post.

[Macavity]

Ever an intriguing question... which will probably remain subjective?
But then there's nowt wrong with a bit of subjectivity in science... ?

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/03/10/a-hex-on-star-colors/#.XBoLSFX7S70

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/07/29/why-are-there-no-green-stars/#.XBoLsFX7S70

Astronomy has it's *conventions* too? I mean, there are colours
that the majority of Astronomers use for their HA & CaK solar
images that are quite different from the (more likely) true ones! ?

[Ed in UK]

41 minutes ago, Macavity said:

Ever an intriguing question... which will probably remain subjective?
But then there's nowt wrong with a bit of subjectivity in science... ?

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/03/10/a-hex-on-star-colors/#.XBoLSFX7S70

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/07/29/why-are-there-no-green-stars/#.XBoLsFX7S70

Astronomy has it's *conventions* too? I mean, there are colours
that the majority of Astronomers use for their HA & CaK solar
images that are quite different from the (more likely) true ones! ?

Interesting links, especially the bottom one with an interesting footnote too ?.

Need to have a look at some of these "Green" celestial bodies then...... 

[Ed in UK]

Reading the article and the opening gambit by the editor explain that the stars are not actually "Green" they just appear this way and that the amount of colour may well vary from person to person / setup to setup. 

Anyway I've loaded them into SS Pro 6 as an observation list and I'll have a go at finding them and looking for this colouration.

Looking at my starter set up it may be a bit of a challenge, but if you don't try.......

[Pig]

On 19/12/2018 at 09:07, Ed in UK said:

Interesting, I've never been able to really make out any colour detail other than Mars and the banding on Jupiter. I can see a difference between Rigel and Betelgeuse but that's about my limit. As for Blue and Green I can safely say that I've never seen those colours. I'll have a look when the skies clear again.

Thanks for post.

Ed I am quite surprised you haven’t noticed coloured stars before, when you get the chance try the Garnet star, it is very red. I always found the Pentax XW eyepieces very good for bringing colours out ?

[cotterless45]

Interesting article , good to see stars highlighted instead of fuzzies observable with 14" aperture. I would disagree that familiar ones , like Almach and Cor Caroli show any trace of even averted green.

I've noticed a tempory green tinge to a few obscure binary companions , but only with 4" aperture. For colour just now , I'd go to the red,

"Hind's crimson " in Lepus (SAO 150058)

and a bit later , hit "La Superba" (SAO 44317)in Canes Venatici. 

Both of the "winter Albireos ", iota Cancri and h3945 in Canis Major will give you plenty colour . You might go green with the amount of pleasure you get , if you've not been a fan of stars !!!

Old Nick.

[Ed in UK]

22 hours ago, Pig said:

Ed I am quite surprised you haven’t noticed coloured stars before, when you get the chance try the Garnet star, it is very red. I always found the Pentax XW eyepieces very good for bringing colours out ?

Thanks Pig, to be totally honest I've probably spent much of the last year getting to grips with the scope and trying to star hop, using setting circles etc. I've managed to bag a couple of galaxies, planets and the odd cluster but not really paid my attention to stars and colours. However now I'm slightly more competent I can now start looking for these interesting objects that are out there. ? Garnet will be added to my observing list ?

[Pig]

@Ed in UK coloured star observing is probably the only discipline in astronomy where large aperture is a bit of a handicap, I have found around 100mm is perfect.

[bingevader]

I think there's probably a bit of journalistic license here too though:

"A small handful of stars appear to glow emerald in the night sky."

[kerrylewis]

A trick worth trying to accentuate star colours is to defocus them a bit 

[Alan White]

I have not noticed any green looking stars over the years (or I have forgotten them).
But you never know, one day I might observe one, it's always an adventure.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

One nice thing about the first graph, is that it shows that there is no colour called 'purple', it's just a figment of our eyes\brain adding red and blue light.....