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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 a
by trey-jones 3y ago
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 3y agoNope, 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 3y agoBetelgeuse 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_brightest_stars