| QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NIGHT TIME SKIES
Posted: 4/16/2008 7:14:36 PM | To you well educated scientists, this question may be abvious to you, but for me, a girl who was taught little science in school is quite a mind boggler. This may seem like a random question, but its not, i thought about this, ok here goes......READ CAREFULLY AND SLOWLY AS THE SENTENCE MAY SOUND CONFUSING AT FIRST, IF SO READ IT TWICE OR SO ON UNTIL YOU GET IT.
QUESTION 1.
Why at night is sometimes the stars shining brightly, and then another night, it seems as the stars did never exist? What happens to the stars?
QUESTION 2.
How come when it snows at night, the sky turns yellow/bright orange? I have never seen a dark night with snow and stars have you?
QUESTION 3.
Sometimes at night, for example tonight, the sky is bright orange but it is not snowing. If not caused by snow, what makes the sky turn orange at night and why?
QUESTION4.
Overall, i would like to know what makes the sky turn different colours, and why? Is it possible to ever have combination of each colour sky with each weather?
any ideas? | |
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| QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NIGHT TIME SKIES
Posted: 4/16/2008 7:21:52 PM | Uneducated guesses.
Q1 Probably clouds.
Q2 Check the phase of the moon, if its a full moon it reflects allot of light.
Q3 Same as Q2 if its cloudy.
Q4 Mostly its shades of red. Has to do with angle of the sun and how much water vapor there is in the atmosphere. | |
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| QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NIGHT TIME SKIES
Posted: 4/16/2008 7:26:22 PM | Question one - stars may be hard to see if there's cloud cover. There can be many clouds which are so high you can't see them from the ground, but they can still reduce the starlight, AND reflect ground light. Combined, that makes stars hard to see. Moonlight can also hide the light of stars, especially with smog or clouds.
Question 2 - the yellow and orange is the color of outdoor lighting, reflected off and refracted through the snow and clouds. Large cities can be seen from more than 50 miles away by the orange glow above them from streetlights.
Question 3 - same as 2.
Question 4 - different colors of light bend differently. Clouds contain water, which will bend light more than usual. Depending on how much cloud the light passes through, more of certain colors will be bent towards or away from you. Air also bends light. When the sun is close to the horizon, the light comes through a lot more air to reach you. As a result, you see more red, less blue. Some of the sun's light doesn't hit the air until it's closer [and above] you. That's why the sky will be blue above you and red on the horizon near dusk and dawn. At mid-day, light at the horizon is moving away from you, so the horizon will be darker. Weather is mostly a question of what kind of clouds and how much, so it does affect the colors you see. | |
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| QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NIGHT TIME SKIES
Posted: 4/16/2008 8:02:59 PM | Blingin, if you wanted to see something truly amazing in the night sky, you should see the Northern lights...
This happens beween Aug and Sept and is because of the solar flares and it interupting the upper atmosphere over the northern polar cap.... There is a beautiful mix of colors, and they waver like strips of light colored candy.
#2, if you want to see it dark with the snow falling, which when it happens, you have to be far away from any large city lights... It will still be light because of the reflection of the falling snow, but it is beautiful... Then take a listen to the snow as it falls, and all those water crystals forming, and reforming as the temperature isn't totally static.. Then it hits the other fallen snow... In the silence it is almost ere. | |
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| QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NIGHT TIME SKIES
Posted: 4/16/2008 8:52:40 PM | | The northern lights can be seen ANY time of year, but it's often easier in winter. Even in this city of a million, they can be seen on any clear night, due to the size of our parks, clear air, and relatively northern location. | |
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| QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NIGHT TIME SKIES
Posted: 4/16/2008 8:59:09 PM |
Blingin, if you wanted to see something truly amazing in the night sky, you should see the Northern lights...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qIXs6Sh0DKs
Oh, and of course, FrogO_Oeyes's explanation to my knowledge is correct. | |
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| QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NIGHT TIME SKIES
Posted: 5/2/2008 12:52:53 AM | q1. the earths atmosphere causes that
q2 the light is being split by the snow flakes like a prism
q3 lights from major cities reflecting on low level clouds
q4 the earths atmosphere e.g the atmosphere reflects red light but allows blue light to pass
also depends on your angle to the sun with what colours you see
and not unless you have two suns or are standing in two different places will you see more than one colour
i hope i`m right lol | |
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| QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NIGHT TIME SKIES
Posted: 5/3/2008 6:22:46 PM | Out of curiosity are you viewing from in/near a city or out in the country?
Light pollution alone can cause just about everything you mentioned, although I'm not familiar with the "orange" tint that you're mentioning.
I suppose I can kind of relate because I could swear that when the weather is of the type that is likely to spawn tornadoes that the sky gets a slighty green tint to it... | |
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| QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NIGHT TIME SKIES
Posted: 5/3/2008 7:13:55 PM | QUESTION 1.
Why at night is sometimes the stars shining brightly, and then another night, it seems as the stars did never exist? What happens to the stars?
You may have gone indoors. 
Sometimes at night I lay down on my bed, look up at the stars and ask myself "What the hell happened to my roof?" | |
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| QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NIGHT TIME SKIES
Posted: 5/5/2008 8:09:01 AM | 1. no moon means you can't see the clouds up a little higher than usual. If they're a little lower, the cities will light them up and you go "hey... it's cloudy tonight.
2. Light refraction.
3. The orange glow is probably caused by dust in the air. Ever hear of a "harvest moon?" A harvest moon is usually orange (thus the Orange and Black for halloween). That's because of all the dust that's stirred into the air during harvest time. You're also more likely to see an orange moon when it's low in the sky and close to the horizon. Barring a large volcanic eruption somewhere, a moon over the ocean may appear larger and magnified, but never orange (less dust over the ocean). Also, ever hear the saying "once in a blue moon"? That's when you can see the moon (white) during the daytime in a blue sky.
4. All depends on the dust in the atmosphere. See#3. | |
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