Observation by Tracie Heywood: Ten year light curve for Betelgeuse

Uploaded by

Tracie Heywood

Observer

Tracie Heywood

Observed

2018 Dec 26 - 12:06

Uploaded

2018 Dec 26 - 12:12

Objects

Betelgeuse
Lightcurve
Variable star

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Constellation

Cetus

Field centre

RA: 02^h19^m
Dec: -02°04'
Position angle: +89°34'

Field size

0°09' × 0°03'

Equipment

Target name

Betelgeuse

Title

Ten year light curve for Betelgeuse

About this image

Here is my light curve for Betelgeuse since 2009.

Since it is often claimed (usually by people who don't actually observe the star) that Betelgeuse routinely varies between magnitudes 0.0 and 1.3, I thought that it would be useful to post a long term light curve that shows the typical range is only a few tenths of a magnitude.

Betelgeuse can sometimes appear to be somewhat brighter or fainter than the range observed here, but my 40 year experience of observing it has revealed that this is only the case when observing under poor sky conditions or when there are significant altitude difference between Betelgeuse and its comparison stars.

Files associated with this observation

Betelgeuse_2009-2018.png (11.1 kB)

Like this image

Jeremy Shears, Ray Emery, Graham Winstanley, Andy Wilson, David Basey, Steve Knight, Dave Smith

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