Scintillation (astronomy) - Blinking stars - Twinkling stars

Scintillation or twinkling are generic terms for rapid variations in apparent brightness or color of a distant luminous object viewed through the atmosphere. If the object lies outside the earth’s atmosphere, as in the case of stars and planets, the phenomenon is termed astronomical scintillation; if the luminous source lies within the atmosphere, the phenomenon is termed terrestrial scintillation. As one of the three principal factors governing astronomical seeing, scintillation is defined as variati