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What Causes Stars to Repeatedly Disappear and Reappear

-- Mark | May 3, 2020

Question:

While on a trip with friends in colombia in the café region of quindio one night by the pool at a Vila we stayed at in the middle of nowhere for a bit of fun one night I said first one to see a shooting star gets 50 dollars. Anyway as it was a clear sky needless to say we saw quite a few. No light pollution and an amazing sky.
While concentrating on my bit of sky to spot shooting stars I noticed something quite strange. One star seemed to disappear and then com back as if someone had switched off a light then switched it back on again. First I thought it might have been a Satélite or something passing in front of it. But then it happened again the star disappeared as if switching off a light and then came back. The time between each appearance and disappearance of the star I would guess around 15-20 seconds and it happened about say 5 or 6 times until it disappeared all together.
I managed to get one of my other friends to see it for the last 2 appearances.
My question is What did I see? Was I seeing the death of a star? I know nothing about astronomy but it has been something that has puzzled me and bothered me since seeing it. I hope you can shed some light on the matter.
Thanking you in advance for taking time to read my enquiry. I sincerely hope you find time to reply.
Kind regards
Mark Clarkson

-- Mark

Answer:

I believe that the answer to your question has been answered by my “twinkling stars” answer. Repeating that answer here, what you were probably seeing is the affect that the Earth’s atmosphere has on how objects outside of the atmosphere appear to us here on Earth. Specifically, the Earth’s atmosphere bends and blocks the light from objects outside our atmosphere, making objects that are point sources appear to “twinkle”, or appear and disappear, dependent upon how the atmosphere is moving around and how thick it is. There may have been some thin clouds in the sky where you were watching stars which caused the star’s brightness to fade in and out as clouds passed overhead. I suspect that this is what you were seeing.

-- Jeff Mangum

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