there's definitely a lot of people out there who don't know what planets look like in the night sky
protip: planets twinkle and look like distorted little discs when viewed through a telescope or binos. stars only ever look like points of light, they are too far away to twinkle (though when thin clouds pass in front of them they sorta change)
I thought stars twinkle because they're just points, so distortions are enough to move the entire image. Planets are large enough that distortions don't really change the shape or size of the image, they just make it blurry.
Yeah fair enough - both things are subject to atmospheric distortion changing the way they look. I am thinking in the context of ufo-ology though - planets are large enough that distortions in the atmosphere between the viewer and the planet can make the planet look like it's doing stuff - different shadows and warbles on the disc of the planet can look like shit changing form. a star will shift with atmospheric distortion but because it's only a single point of light instead of a disc, it'll appear to move a little in position but there isn't the same intra-object change.
No, the common wisdom is definitely that stars twinkle and planets do not.
Even more so, some of the recent videos of Sirius show wild fluctuations in color because stars are active plasma with light passing through many interstellar structures while planets are far more stable, they are reflective only, and there's very little between us and them.
Issuing a memo that’s like “the most likely explanation for the UFOs is that Covid caused a lot of brain damage”
there's definitely a lot of people out there who don't know what planets look like in the night sky
protip: planets twinkle and look like distorted little discs when viewed through a telescope or binos. stars only ever look like points of light, they are too far away to twinkle (though when thin clouds pass in front of them they sorta change)
I thought stars twinkle because they're just points, so distortions are enough to move the entire image. Planets are large enough that distortions don't really change the shape or size of the image, they just make it blurry.
Yeah fair enough - both things are subject to atmospheric distortion changing the way they look. I am thinking in the context of ufo-ology though - planets are large enough that distortions in the atmosphere between the viewer and the planet can make the planet look like it's doing stuff - different shadows and warbles on the disc of the planet can look like shit changing form. a star will shift with atmospheric distortion but because it's only a single point of light instead of a disc, it'll appear to move a little in position but there isn't the same intra-object change.
But have you taken in to account my unique mutant trait; Astigmatism!
ah ok I see what you mean
no bro, Tik Tok is telling me it's Angels and Plasmoids...like living beings made of Plasma.
Do they even know what plasma is? Or does it just sound fancy to them because its a special state of matter
No, the common wisdom is definitely that stars twinkle and planets do not.
Even more so, some of the recent videos of Sirius show wild fluctuations in color because stars are active plasma with light passing through many interstellar structures while planets are far more stable, they are reflective only, and there's very little between us and them.
I don't think we need to invoke covid brain fog for this, Americans have called every fuzzy dot in the sky a UFO since the 50s.