Photographing the colours of a star’s twinkle

Here’s a very cool photograph of the colours that Spica twinkles.

Want to do it yourself? Just simply follow these instructions as shown to me by fellow astronomer Conna Bramley…

  1. Point your camera at the brightest star you can see, maybe Sirius or Spica.
  2. Set up for a long exposure, maybe 5 to 10 seconds.
  3. Open the shutter and move the camera around in various ways.
  4. Enjoy awesome colour lines like the one above!

I have no idea why I hadn’t thought of this before! Very cool.