*Activating semi-scientist mode*
It's true that stars twinkle whilst planets don't.
The following information is a rough translation of the Dutch text
here, and I've probably make a few mistakes. But as long as most of it is clear, I'm happy
The reason behind the twinkling is that all stars are extremely distant from the earth, which means they can be viewed as light originating from a single point in space. The atmosphere of the earth distorts these rays of light, because the atmosphere's different warm and cold layers of air make it turbulent. In addition, the athmosphere contains a lot of dust and water vapours, which make sure the fine rays from the stars are bent and broken in all sorts of ways, making the starlight dance back and forth, and in that way, twinkle.
When we look at planets, we see an entire disk, just we see the moon. Although the atmosphere influences light reflecting off of planets as well, the disc we see is much larger than the point of light coming from a star. The distortion appears much less severe, and that's why planets hardly twinkle at all.
The layers of atmosphere and the water vapours and dust in it also form the reason scientists prefer to build their telescopes in high and dry areas (the view is much more stable that way, as there's less of all of the above).
Space telescopes will never see stars twinkling, which is why they are there in the first place [img]smile.gif[/img]
So no, planet light is hardly interfered with by atmospheric effects.
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Colours of stars do depend on the heat of the stars themselves, but also on a doppler-like effect (don't know the english term for the actual phenomenon), where lightwaves appear to be closer together, or farther apart, than they were when they left the star. This causes stars moving towards us (or stars we move closer to) to appear more blue than they are, whilst stars moving away appear more red (actually, the wavelength increases is all). Our earht atmosphere also influences this.
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As for lightning bolts... I believe blue/white is a common colour for electrical discharges, although I can't say I have had any experience with lightning myself.
*Deactivating semi-scientist mode*