There’s new evidence of a large cold spot partly causing dimming of Betelgeuse

Discuss the latest astronomy news!
Post Reply
User avatar
smp United States of America
Inter-Galactic Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 3401
Joined: Sat May 11, 2019 10:34 pm
4
Location: NH, USA
Status:
Offline

There’s new evidence of a large cold spot partly causing dimming of Betelgeuse

#1

Post by smp »


From Ars Technica:
"Back in June, we reported on a likely explanation for the strange, dramatic dimming of Betelgeuse, a bright red star in the Orion constellation: The star burped out a massive gas bubble, resulting in lower temperatures that condensed heavier elements into dust that temporarily obscured the starlight. Now, a team of Chinese scientists has found evidence of a large, dark, cooler spot on the star—consistent with those earlier findings—based on spectral analysis, according to a recent paper published in the journal Nature Communications."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08 ... etelgeuse/

smp
Stephen
- - - - -
Telescopes: Questar 3.5 Standard SN 18-11421; Stellina (EAA)
Solar: Thousand Oaks white light filter; Daystar Quark (chromosphere) Hα filter
Mounts: Explore Scientific Twilight I; Majestic heavy duty tripod
Local Club: New Hampshire Astronomical Society
User avatar
helicon United States of America
Co-Administrator
Co-Administrator
Articles: 584
Online
Posts: 12274
Joined: Mon May 06, 2019 1:35 pm
4
Location: Washington
Status:
Online

TSS Awards Badges

Re: There’s new evidence of a large cold spot partly causing dimming of Betelgeuse

#2

Post by helicon »


Very interesting Stephen.
-Michael
Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50
Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl
Camera: ZWO ASI 120
Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs
Latitude: 48.7229° N
User avatar
Makuser United States of America
In Memory
In Memory
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 6394
Joined: Mon May 06, 2019 12:53 am
4
Location: Rockledge, FL.
Status:
Offline

TSS Awards Badges

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: There’s new evidence of a large cold spot partly causing dimming of Betelgeuse

#3

Post by Makuser »


Hello Stephen. This was a great read and quite informative about the red supergiant Betelgeuse dimming. Thanks for finding and posting this link Stephen, and keep up the great Astronomy News reports.
Marshall
Sky-Watcher 90mm f/13.8 Maksutov-Cassegrain on motorized Multimount
Orion Astroview 120ST f/5 Refractor on EQ3 mount
Celestron Comet Catcher 140mm f/3.64 Schmidt-Newtonian on alt-az mount
Celestron Omni XLT150R f/5 Refractor on CG4 mount with dual axis drives.
Orion 180mm f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain on CG5-GT Goto mount.
Orion XT12i 12" f/4.9 Dobsonian Intelliscope.
Kamakura 7x35 Binoculars and Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 Binoculars. ZWO ASI 120MC camera.
>)))))*>
User avatar
OzEclipse Australia
Moderator
Moderator
Articles: 2
Online
Posts: 2327
Joined: Sat May 11, 2019 8:11 am
4
Location: Young, NSW, Australia, 34S, 148E
Status:
Online

TSS Awards Badges

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: There’s new evidence of a large cold spot partly causing dimming of Betelgeuse

#4

Post by OzEclipse »


Thanks Stephen,

Very interesting read and especially interesting because it was about something that I observed myself.

Joe
Image
Amateur astronomer since 1978...................Web site : http://joe-cali.com/
Scopes: ATM 18" Dob, Vixen VC200L, ATM 6"f7, Stellarvue 102ED, Saxon ED80, WO M70 ED, Orion 102 Maksutov, ST80.
Mounts: Takahashi EM-200, iOptron iEQ45, Push dobsonian with Nexus DSC, three homemade EQ's.
Eyepieces: TV Naglers 31, 17, 12, 7; Denkmeier D21 & D14; Pentax XW10, XW5, Unitron 40mm Kellner, Meade Or 25,12
Cameras : Pentax K1, K5, K01, K10D / VIDEO CAMS : TacosBD, Lihmsec.
Cam/guider/controllers: Lacerta MGEN 3, SW Synguider, Simulation Curriculum SkyFi 3+Sky safari
Memberships Astronomical Association of Queensland; RASNZ Occultations Section; Single Exposure Milky Way Facebook Group (Moderator) (12k members)
User avatar
pakarinen United States of America
Inter-Galactic Ambassador
Articles: 0
Offline
Posts: 4013
Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2019 3:33 pm
4
Location: NE Illinois
Status:
Offline

TSS Awards Badges

Re: There’s new evidence of a large cold spot partly causing dimming of Betelgeuse

#5

Post by pakarinen »


0511 UTC today. Still there. :grin: Might be interesting to take a few pix over several days and see what can be seen.
alphaorionis_20210826_051149_0_a8ud93_rgb.png
=============================================================================
I drink tea, I read books, I look at stars when I'm not cursing clouds. It's what I do.
=============================================================================
AT50, AT72EDII, ST80, ST102; Scopetech Zero, AZ-GTi, AZ Pronto; Innorel RT90C, Oberwerk 5000; Orion Giantview 15x70s, Vortex 8x42s, Navy surplus 7x50s, Nikon 10x50s
User avatar
OzEclipse Australia
Moderator
Moderator
Articles: 2
Online
Posts: 2327
Joined: Sat May 11, 2019 8:11 am
4
Location: Young, NSW, Australia, 34S, 148E
Status:
Online

TSS Awards Badges

TSS Photo of the Day

Re: There’s new evidence of a large cold spot partly causing dimming of Betelgeuse

#6

Post by OzEclipse »


pakarinen wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 4:37 pm 0511 UTC today. Still there. :grin: Might be interesting to take a few pix over several days and see what can be seen.

Image
Hi Olen,
I think the article refers to earlier dimming. I did an all nighter on the 16th and saw Orion. Betelguese looked its normal similar brightness to Rigel. It's not particularly dimmed at the moment.

If you want to take a picture that records the brightness of the star, you will do better with something like a 50mm lens on full frame, 35mm on APSc so that you can take in Rigel, Bellatrix etc for magnitude comparisons. The picture you took is centre saturated. You need to keep the exposure low enough that all of the exposure falls within the well depth of the sensor ie so that the star isn't white.

kind regards

Joe
Image
Amateur astronomer since 1978...................Web site : http://joe-cali.com/
Scopes: ATM 18" Dob, Vixen VC200L, ATM 6"f7, Stellarvue 102ED, Saxon ED80, WO M70 ED, Orion 102 Maksutov, ST80.
Mounts: Takahashi EM-200, iOptron iEQ45, Push dobsonian with Nexus DSC, three homemade EQ's.
Eyepieces: TV Naglers 31, 17, 12, 7; Denkmeier D21 & D14; Pentax XW10, XW5, Unitron 40mm Kellner, Meade Or 25,12
Cameras : Pentax K1, K5, K01, K10D / VIDEO CAMS : TacosBD, Lihmsec.
Cam/guider/controllers: Lacerta MGEN 3, SW Synguider, Simulation Curriculum SkyFi 3+Sky safari
Memberships Astronomical Association of Queensland; RASNZ Occultations Section; Single Exposure Milky Way Facebook Group (Moderator) (12k members)
Post Reply

Create an account or sign in to join the discussion

You need to be a member in order to post a reply

Create an account

Not a member? register to join our community
Members can start their own topics & subscribe to topics
It’s free and only takes a minute

Register

Sign in

Return to “Astronomy News”