What's the reason for glittering of the stars?

[rednewguy]

yesterday i saw a star(i think so, may be its a planet). i hav studied in doppler effect that according to the motion of the star whether it is towards or away from earth, the color will be accordingly either blue or red. But the star i saw was glittering in red, blue, violet, white... . wat cud be the reason.

thanks

 

[echo47]

Star Color

Atmospheric turbulence causes stars to twinkle. Sometimes the effect is strong enough that you can see color in the brightest stars. The effect is similar to a prism refracting white light into colors. If you saw a planet twinkling, then the turbulence was unusually strong. The only bright planet visible right now is Saturn in the early morning.

Twinkling can be really pretty, except to an astronomer!

 

[Quibbler]

Re: Star Color

The colour of stars is due to their surface temperature - not the Doppler effect.
All the stars you can see are in "our galaxy" and so their relative motion is small.