Subj : Stargazing News - May 17th, 2025
To   : All
From : CJ
Date : Fri May 16 2025 06:17 am

Saturday May 17, 2025

Catch the Colors of Stars (all night)

Stars shine with a color that is controlled by their surface (or photospheric)
temperature, and this is captured in their spectral classification. In mid-May
every year, the three bright stars of the Summer Triangle asterism are
climbing the eastern sky after dusk. Deneb, Vega, and Altair are A-class stars
that appear blue-white to the eye and have temperatures in the range of 7,500
to 10,000 Kelvins. Arcturus, which dominates the southern sky in evening, is
an orange, K-class giant star with a temperature of only 4,300 K. Chara, the
fainter of Canes Venatici's two stars, is a yellowish, G-class star with a
temperature of 5,900 K, similar to our sun's. Reddish Antares, the heart of
Scorpius, which twinkles above the southern horizon, is an old M-class star
with a low surface temperature of 3,500 K. You can estimate the temperatures
of other stars by comparing their color to these bright reference stars. 

(Data courtesy of Starry Night)
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