[HN Gopher] A rare occultation of Betelgeuse
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A rare occultation of Betelgeuse
Author : 1970-01-01
Score : 80 points
Date : 2023-12-11 19:25 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (spaceweatherarchive.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (spaceweatherarchive.com)
| trey-jones wrote:
| This seems an extremely strange coincidence to me, since I
| haven't often noted the extremely bright, redish star in Orion's
| shoulder, but I did last night, at about 10:00 PM EST. I don't
| suppose any brightening effect would have been expected because
| of this? I thought it was possibly Mars, but didn't look into it.
| teraflop wrote:
| Nope, Mars is currently on the opposite side of the sky from
| Orion (and only a few degrees away from the sun, so it's
| difficult to see at all).
| dylan604 wrote:
| Betelgeuse does fluctuate in brightness from 0 to +1.6 apparent
| magnitude which makes it pretty bright. In fact, it is listed
| at the 10th brightest star[0]. It should be recognizable
| anytime you look up during season if it is not cloudy. I can
| see it in light polluted urban areas. As the saying goes, keep
| looking up!
|
| There are 3 bright red dots that I use as sign posts, and it is
| fairly easy to narrow down which one it is. Is it part of Orion
| (easily ID'd by the belt and sword), then it is Betelgeuse. Is
| it part of Scorpio (ID'd by seeing the pinchers up and to the
| right), then it is Antares. Else, it is Mars. The fun thing
| about Scorpio is that it is a guide to finding the central
| portion of the Milky Way. You could also add winter/summer as
| filters in that as well.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_brightest_stars
| jihadjihad wrote:
| I was excited to check it out last night, as it was clear in my
| area and I had a nice view of Orion. But then I realized you had
| to be waaaay down south, like southern FL, to see it :(
| pickleberto wrote:
| I was in Miami, but it was cloudy. :(
| dylan604 wrote:
| Welcome to astronomy! If it's not an issue with local cloud
| coverage, it'll be an issue of not being visible from your
| area. But when it does happen! To me, it's better than the
| proverbial golf shot. Even though I've experienced the golf
| shot, I've never spent thousands of dollars on anything golf
| related. I've never stood out in the freezing cold in the
| middle of the night working on a golf swing. Also unlike golf,
| you can get assistance and people are typically happy to
| provide it.
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| This was the result:
|
| https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=...
| anthrokwos wrote:
| Did anyone capture it in video format, with a high-ISO camera
| mounted to a telescope? It would be fun to see it, if it's
| possible with today's image sensors.
| bongodongobob wrote:
| That's likely what the picture is and according to the
| caption you could barely notice.
| dylan604 wrote:
| It happened over several seconds, and would have been so
| faint that you won't notice it without heavy video
| processing.
| sdwvit wrote:
| Post date is 1970-01-01. Interesting.
| frutiger wrote:
| That's the user name of the submitter.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| I did a double take as well - what an excellent username.
| pelagicAustral wrote:
| Unix timestamp stating date (?)
| sgt wrote:
| I figured it might be a pg bug that reset the story's
| timestamp to 0.
| nojs wrote:
| It's a username
| crooked-v wrote:
| Just be careful about saying the name too much during such occult
| conditions.
| cbm-vic-20 wrote:
| Let's say Betelgeuse exploded 550 years ago, and I happen to be
| looking at the star at the exact moment the light/EM reaches the
| earth. Would it be bright enough to cause an injury? If at night,
| would it make shadows on the ground next to me?
| its_ethan wrote:
| It will be comparable in brightness to a full Moon I believe.
|
| Found this source quickly that says more like a half-moon, but
| it's all just estimates really.
| https://www.astronomy.com/science/when-betelgeuse-goes-super...
|
| I think it's safe to say it would be unlikely to cause any
| damage to your eyes if you happened to be watching.
| onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
| For how long would it be that bright?
| crubier wrote:
| Full moon energy concentrated on a small dot that has
| 100,000x smaller angular area might be able to damage your
| eye? I don't know, I didn't do the math
| deadbabe wrote:
| Wouldn't total occultation of a star be a great way to send
| signals to far away civilizations?
| larperdoodle wrote:
| The star is occulted by a small asteroid in our solar system.
| For something in the Betelgeuse system to occult the star, it
| would have to be about the same size as the star.
|
| We detect the presence of planets in other systems when they
| pass between us and the star, marginally decreasing the
| brightness.
|
| Not a great way to send messages long distances
| midasuni wrote:
| If a star vanishes because you build a Dyson sphere that's
| one way of sending a message
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