Remember the little rhyme from childhood, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star.  How I wonder what you are"?  Well, many stars do twinkle because their brightness changes with time.

For example, a star called Algol in the constellation Perseus periodically fades to half its normal brightness.  This cycle occurs about every three days.  Algol stays dim for about ten hours.  Then, just as rapidly as it faded, it grows bright again.  The reason for Algol's strange behaviour is that it's not one star but two stars, one bright and one dim.  The two stars orbit around one another.  They behave like the flashing light of an ambulance as its metal baffle rotates around a bulb, repeatedly blocking the light beam.  When Algol's dim star moves in front of the bright star, it seems to become fainter because some of its light is blocked from view.  As the dim star moves away from the bright one, Algol regains its brightness.

Another kind of twinkling star is called a ‘Cepheid variable.'  Delta Cephei, the fourth brightest star in the constellation Cepheus, winks every 5.37 days.  In this case the explanation is that the star is pulsating in and out like a balloon being blown up and then partially deflated.  When the star is at its smallest it's bright, when it expands, it grows dimmer.

So next time a star seems to wink at you, remember it's either pulsating or rotating.

MOVING BEYOND MATTER
by Debbie Hughes

Occurrences in the nighttime sky are easily understood once we are given an explanation for their varying appearances.  Our eyes are not being tricked.  The stars are not on dimmer switches.

The behaviour of these stars is consistent and predictable.  And yet from our vantage point we see variations.  Sometimes they shine brightly in the night sky, and at other times seem weak or far away.

As we journey through life here on Earth, we look back and see brighter periods in our personal history when things were going well.  We will also note darker times when life was stressful.  

There seems to be a human inclination to want to understand and tell our personal story as a cohesive and continuous whole.  We want the plot to make sense, to carry through as one unified story.  We aren't comfortable with loose ends.  We need to see not merely the cycles in life, but the big picture of our life.

Often however we see only the individual life events which seem random and meaningless.  Despite our yearning to make sense of our life, we fail to step back and look at the patterns and the overall shape and direction of it.  

In our own human experience there are times when life is good and the world is a fine place to live.  Circumstances are favourable - our health is good, our families are thriving, work is secure, and friends are in plentiful supply.  At other times we experience the distress of life.  Our resources are taxed.  Help seems inadequate or distant.

People often seek out spiritual help during these times.  Some find that the source of divine strength and consolation shines brightly into their lives when they are at their weakest.  Other people feel a distance, a lack of spiritual help.  They conclude that it just isn't there.  Another group will experience the dimness but know that God is still at work even though circumstances block our view of Him.  Faith, when grounded in the knowledge of God and His character, upholds us even as God holds us up.