... Bad Astronomy . Misconceptions . ... Bad Astronomy: All stars that you can see at night are white. Good Astronomy: Stars actually emit all the colors of the rainbow. ... Most people don't really think about stars having colors, so they tacitly assume all stars are white. ... The reason most stars appear white to us is because we have two different kind of light sensors in our eyes. ... So even a red star looks white if it is dim, and only brighter stars look like they have color to us! ...