Friday, August 16, 2024

Catch the Colors of Stars (all night)

Bright stars can still be enjoyed on a moonlit night. Stars shine with a color that is controlled by their photospheric temperature, and this is captured in their spectral classification. The three bright stars of the eastern sky
Summer Triangle asterism, named Deneb, Vega, and Altair, are A-class stars
that appear blue-white to the eye. They have temperatures in the range of
7,500 to 10,000 Kelvin. Arcturus, which is located in the western evening sky, is an orange, K-class giant star with a temperature of only 4,300 K. Reddish Antares, the heart of Scorpius, is an old M-class star with a low surface temperature of 3,500 K. After midnight local time, look for very bright, yellowish Capella rising in the northeast. You can estimate the temperatures
of fainter stars by comparing their color to these bright reference stars.

(Data courtesy of Starry Night)
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