Advice

[bennylee79]

Hi all, i'm new to this but the bug has gotten me. Yesterday morning i was leaving for work at 6.15am when I was greeted by an amazing sight as i opened my door. The skies were lovely and clear, Orion was gazing at me so i couldn't help getting out my 15x70 binos for a quick gaze before i headed off to work. I took in Jupiter and 3 of its moons, the moon, various through Orion and Venus but it was 2 reddish stars which caught my eye. After checking out stellarium last night I identified one as Betelguise but the other one i couldnt work out. Its was to the left of jupiter and about half way between the horizon and jupiter. Any Ideas?

[The Sailor]

The only other one I can see but not reddish is Procyon, maybe?

Jim

[VigdisVZ]

The Orion Nebula (and the Rosette Nebula) is pretty red and bright but should appear fuzzy and not sharp like a star. Gamma Geminorum aka Alhena isn't very reddish. Procyon should have been lower than halfway and white in color.

You sure got us a mystery here

Carl

[Capricorn]

Did you identify the first one as Betelgeuse because it was in Orion?

Just there is the chance that if the first was Aldebaran then the second could have been Betelguese.

[Stu]

I was thinking Aldebaran but the location doesn't sound right. Rigel makes some sense from a location and brightness point of view but is completely the wrong colour.

Equally confused......

Stu

[stevetynant]

It's fantastic seeing this in the morning isn't it, the winter skies returning if a little early at the moment.

[Capricorn]

My thought was if 2 red stars were seen, then a few hours later Stellarium was consulted then Betelgeuse stands out and could be assumed to be the highest, you then start looking for a lower red second which there doesn't seem to be. Whereas if the higher were Aldebaran then Betelgeuse is about the right place to be the second.

Also from the limited bits I have Jupiter looks like it is to the right and above Betelgeuse and close to Aldebaran, main point being Betelgeuse is then to the left and below Jupiter.

Seems a bit odd that Betelgeuse was not easily identified without Stellarium as they refer to Orion.

I cannot criticise any one for not recognising a a red star, 2 years back I was going out at 6:30 to work and for 3 days and looking at a bright red star I could not identify in Gemini.

Turned out it was Mars.

[The Sailor]

I did turn Stellarium back to the time of sight but still could not place the red star, not a problem, always plenty of mysteries in the sky

Jim

[Welrod50]

Weird,

Maybe you have inadvertently discovered a super nova??

That would be cool!! I must say, I am rather looking forward to taking in Orion again soon, albeit not at that time of the morning

Good post BTW.......

Scott.

[bennylee79]

Thanks for the replies guys. As i say im still very new to this so any advice is helpful. I will be keeping an eye out for all the stars you've mentioned.

[bennylee79]

I've had another look this morning and indentified my unidentified star as........Aldebaran. So it was more slightly orangey then reddish but mystery over. Thanks again for the help.

[Stu]

Nice one. Mystery solved

Stu