"The Betelgeuse Project"

Today's VROD goes to OzEclipse (Joe) who had the ingenious idea of studying the brightness of Betelgeuse compared to a variety of other stars of known fixed magnitude. Using both naked eye and photometric techniques he found that the red giant is not currently fainter than expected. We all remember a couple of years ago when Betelgeuse faded and astronomers speculated as to whether or not it was fading due to temporary compression into a possible supernova stage, which as it turned out, would not have been fatal to earthlings because of its vast distance from us. All in all a fascinating study. Congratulations Joe on nailing down the VROD for the day!

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