Is Orion going to have a bum shoulder?

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@JWT_Kottekoe

Good point, but a minor nitpick: The logarithmic magnitude scale is based not on 2.5, but on 2.5118… (the fifth root of 100), so magnitude 5 is 100x dimmer than magnitude 0. The reason for this odd choice is historical. The magnitude scale is more than 2000 years old and originally had no precise mathematical definition. In the 19th century the modern definition was introduced to approximately match the historical magnitudes.

Thanks for clearing that up. I knew I was overlooking some minor detail but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

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[JRDelirious]

@Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus

According to the Wiki article, the Big B is a variable star and normally varies from about 0.00 to +1.3 (faintest). Each order of stellar magnitude, by definition, is 2.5 so at the bottom of its normal variation it’s already more than twice as faint as when it’s at its brightest.

So what I’d l like to know now is just how faint Betelgeuse is at the moment. What is the current magnitude?

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It’s apparently at the bottom of the historic range, with a +1.294 reading on the 20th. Meanwhile Sky and Telescope’s Bob King writes that to him it seemed it may be approaching +1.5 at the end of December, down from 0.5 as late as October.

[nearwildheaven]

@Seanette

Which really puzzles me about an alleged supernova sighted in 1006, which was visible for about two weeks.

It would have been visible for 2 weeks by people without telescopes or binoculars, but it continued fading after it disappeared from our view.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@JRDelirious

It’s apparently at the bottom of the historic range, with a +1.294 reading on the 20th. Meanwhile Sky and Telescope’s Bob King writes that to him it seemed it may be approaching +1.5 at the end of December, down from 0.5 as late as October.

I should go out tonight and have a look…no, not this time of year around these parts.

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[JoseB]

Maybe this is a sign of the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster of Gal./Sid./Year 03758?

[Euphonious_Polemic]

@JoseB

Maybe this is a sign of the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster of Gal./Sid./Year 03758?

Interestingly, my father/uncle was the only man on the entire planet to survive the Great Collapsing Hrung disaster, by an extraordinary coincidence that he was never able satisfactorily to explain.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

In case anyone wants to see a before-and-after comparison, here are two photos, one from last night and the other from just over a year ago.

The image sets were taken under different conditions and with different lenses, so disregard the differences in overall brightness and focus on the comparative brightness of stars within each photo. The December 2018 image was made edit a faster lens.

December 2018

January 2020

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[nearwildheaven]

Thanks. I can’t even find it in the second picture.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@nearwildheaven

Thanks. I can’t even find it in the second picture.

In the second shot the entire field is tilted about a quarter turn counterclockwise in comparison to the first photo. Rigel, the one particularly bright star, is near the right margin towards the bottom.

Betelgeuse is near the left margin towards the top. The red color is prominent as ever, but the star appears in this image only about bright as the three belt stars.

To get a better image. I should go out again tonight and use my 50mm lens as I did for the 2018 shot, but–Oregon. I was lucky to have one clear night yesterday.

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[Mundane_Super_Hero]

Now I want to watch the last two minutes of “Forbidden Planet” again… just to watch the Krell planet explode…

[K364]

^ Monsters from the OrionIds

[nearwildheaven]

@Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus

In the second shot the entire field is tilted about a quarter turn counterclockwise in comparison to the first photo. Rigel, the one particularly bright star, is near the right margin towards the bottom.

Betelgeuse is near the left margin towards the top. The red color is prominent as ever, but the star appears in this image only about bright as the three belt stars.

To get a better image. I should go out again tonight and use my 50mm lens as I did for the 2018 shot, but–Oregon. I was lucky to have one clear night yesterday.

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I could tell it was at a different angle, because the belt wasn’t in the same place. Now that you pointed out where Betelgeuse was, I can see it now.