The magnificent constellation of Orion, the hunter, is now visible in the evening sky from both hemispheres, and there’s added interest in looking out for it over the next few weeks. The red giant star Betelgeuse marks one of the hunter’s shoulders and is one of the brightest stars in the sky – or at least it was. In December, it grew conspicuously dimmer. Although known to be a variable star, Betelgeuse is now at its dimmest for more than a century.
This has led to some headlines about it getting ready to explode. While the star contains at least 20 times the mass of the sun and is destined to go out with a bang, its current behaviour is probably not a harbinger of the star’s explosive demise. Over the coming weeks keep an eye on Betelgeuse and compare it to nearby Aldebaran in Taurus, the Bull. Betelgeuse is usually brighter, but at the moment the eye of the Bull is dominant. The chart shows the view at midnight tonight looking south-east from London (look north-east from Sydney).
