The Rainbow Sky

W here do you start to write about colors in the universe? Do you look to the deepest ocean trenches on Earth, with their awesome bioluminescent creatures roaming the blackness of the abyss? And where do you finish? With the most distant galaxies in the cosmos? A difficult question, p- haps, but in between the two extremes, there is so much to marvel at that it really doesn’t matter where you start or end, as long as you note the staggeringly beautiful and complex examples of color there are and that each should, if possible, be represented in some way. Whether staring up at the sky when surprised by the sudden appearance of a vividly colored band of light that is a rainbow or peering through a telescope to view colors further afield, the origin and complexity of the source of light is witness to the wonderful and majestic world and the universe in which we live. A n attempt has been made here not only to create a picture gallery of the universe, but also to provide brief explanations or interpretation of the colors and, where appropriate, to give hints on how to capture p- tures easily yourself, without spending lots of money. As illustrated in the introduction, paying attention to just a few basic camera settings, it is possible to turn a blurred snapshot into a detailed and pin sharp picture worthy of framing and hanging on the wall.

W here do you start to write about colors in the universe? Do you look to the deepest ocean trenches on Earth, with their awesome bioluminescent creatures roaming the blackness of the abyss? And where do you finish? With the most distant galaxies in the cosmos? A difficult question, p- haps, but in between the two extremes, there is so much to marvel at that it really doesn’t matter where you start or end, as long as you note the staggeringly beautiful and complex examples of color there are and that each should, if possible, be represented in some way. Whether staring up at the sky when surprised by the sudden appearance of a vividly colored band of light that is a rainbow or peering through a telescope to view colors further afield, the origin and complexity of the source of light is witness to the wonderful and majestic world and the universe in which we live. A n attempt has been made here not only to create a picture gallery of the universe, but also to provide brief explanations or interpretation of the colors and, where appropriate, to give hints on how to capture p- tures easily yourself, without spending lots of money. As illustrated in the introduction, paying attention to just a few basic camera settings, it is possible to turn a blurred snapshot into a detailed and pin sharp picture worthy of framing and hanging on the wall.

The Origin of Light.- Properties of Stars.- Classification of the Stars.- Spectral Techniques.- Deep Sky Objects.- Solar System Colors.- Colors in Earth’s Atmosphere.- Man-made Colors in the Sky.- Star Colors for Fun.- A Few Last Thoughts.