A rare occultation of Betelgeuse

https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2023/12/10/an-extremely-rare-occultation-of-betelgeuse/

by 1970-01-01 • 3 years ago

110 36 3 years ago

trey-jones• 3 years 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• 3 years ago

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).

dylan6044• 3 years ago

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• 3 years ago

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• 3 years ago

I was in Miami, but it was cloudy. :(

dylan6044• 3 years ago

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• 3 years ago

This was the result:

https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=...

anthrokwos• 3 years ago

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• 3 years ago

That's likely what the picture is and according to the caption you could barely notice.

dylan6044• 3 years ago

It happened over several seconds, and would have been so faint that you won't notice it without heavy video processing.

bscphil• 3 years ago

Not a telescope, but this is the best video I've seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dePmzxejd8

sdwvit• 3 years ago

Post date is 1970-01-01. Interesting.

frutiger• 3 years ago

That’s the user name of the submitter.

pavel_lishin• 3 years ago

I did a double take as well - what an excellent username.

nojs• 3 years ago

It’s a username

crooked-v• 3 years ago

Just be careful about saying the name too much during such occult conditions.

cbm-vic-20• 3 years ago

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_ethan2• 3 years ago

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• 3 years ago

For how long would it be that bright?

crubier• 3 years ago

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

vikingerik• 3 years ago

Besides the other reply, also it doesn't "turn on" to maximum brightness instantly. It takes on the order of several minutes for all the nuclei to absorb the neutrons and then start the radioactive decay that powers the light. Also you wouldn't see light from the whole star simultaneously - it would start from the center (because that's closer to you by the radius of the star), and light from the limb would take several more minutes to arrive (1 AU radius of the star = 8.3 minutes light travel time.)

So your eyes would have time to adjust.

deadbabe• 3 years ago

Wouldn’t total occultation of a star be a great way to send signals to far away civilizations?

larperdoodle• 3 years ago

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• 3 years ago

If a star vanishes because you build a Dyson sphere that’s one way of sending a message

two_in_one2• 3 years ago

Am I right, with ISS on the orbit it should happen several times every day. Not for 7 seconds, but..

eesmith2• 3 years ago

No. There ISS needs to be exactly in the shadow of the asteroid Leona. Both the Earth and Leona are going around the Sun, so the shadow sweeps across the surface of the Earth, taking about 18 minutes to go from Mexico to China, and effectively never coming back.

Even if the ISS is in the shadow once - which would require amazing timing and last for fraction of a second - it is not fast enough to have a second interception.

two_in_one2• 3 years ago

I meant different thing. ISS is big enough to cast a small shadow on Earth. It moves fast and covers a star for some fraction of second (roughly size/orbital velocity). Still every day several times.

A rare occultation of Betelgeuse

Related Stories