Sirius the flasher!

[Cyclops]

Sirius really is one hyper colourful star, and to show the colours better I defocussed the scope and put the phone to the EP, set to video. Such rich colours!

Are there many other such colourful flashers out there?

Here's the video

BTW, I've no idea what that vertical line is. There are no trees or washing lines in the garden and the houses have no chimneys.

Sirius

[Sunshine]

Betelgeuse in Orion is pretty to look at, orange reddish, you can't miss it in orion, i love looking at it because that star can explode anytime now, imagine that!

[northward]

54 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Betelgeuse in Orion is pretty to look at, orange reddish, you can't miss it in orion, i love looking at it because that star can explode anytime now, imagine that!

What?!  Really?!  That's amazing!

[northward]

Also just read this fun fact:

" It would be the brightest star in the night sky if the human eye could view all wavelengths of radiation."

[Sunshine]

16 minutes ago, northward said:

What?!  Really?!  That's amazing!

Yes it is! Betelgeuse is a supergiant red bloated gigantic star which is nearing the end of it's life cycle, our own sun will meet the same fate in roughly 5 billion years or so give or take a billion lol.

to make things even more interesting, it is i think 600 or so light years away which means if it exploded tonight we won't see a supernova for another 600 years, which would be a bummer cause 

i want to see a supernova before i take my dirt nap lol. On the other hand if it blew up 599 years ago we'll have a great light show next year (cross fingers) in the form of a second mini sun brighter than the full moon for a few months!

C'mon Betelgeuse kick it off!! haha Oh no my friend, did we just start a "universe" fun fact back and forth cause i can go for days lol!

[northward]

The outcome of that supernova would be an amazing view to see! 

As for our sun, isn't it fated to go dormant, rather than supernova?

[Sunshine]

good question, you could be right, whether or not a star goes supernova depends on its size, look it up! it will become a red giant either way. 

the scientific explanation is it will either fizzle or pop! lol

 

 

[Demonperformer]

6 hours ago, Cyclops said:

Sirius really is one hyper colourful star

Just to clarify, Sirius itself is not multi-coloured, but is a white/blue-white star. The multi-coloured flashing is only a result of its light being diffracted as it passes through our atmosphere.

http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/sirius-the-brightest-star

[Cyclops]

Still cool to see even tho its atmospheric disturbance

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

If you want to see supernovae, don't wait for one to blow in our neighbourhood, just look beyond our galaxy. I have managed to spot 13 to date. An excellent source for bright SN is here:

http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html

I just have an 8" scope, so no giant instrument needed. The brightest I have seen (in M101 a few years back) was an easy spot in 15x70 binoculars.

[stash_old]

6 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Yes it is! Betelgeuse is a supergiant red bloated gigantic star which is nearing the end of it's life cycle, our own sun will meet the same fate in roughly 5 billion years or so give or take a billion lol.

to make things even more interesting, it is i think 600 or so light years away which means if it exploded tonight we won't see a supernova for another 600 years, which would be a bummer cause 

i want to see a supernova before i take my dirt nap lol. On the other hand if it blew up 599 years ago we'll have a great light show next year (cross fingers) in the form of a second mini sun brighter than the full moon for a few months!

C'mon Betelgeuse kick it off!! haha Oh no my friend, did we just start a "universe" fun fact back and forth cause i can go for days lol!

yes but as someone pointed out to me - bang would go decent star gazing as it would drown the light from other stars - like our moon does. It can wait till i have gone but it would be good to see one a bit further away and short lived during the summer months of June LOL.

[JOC]

My son and I call Sirius the monster raving party star because of it's apparent disco light show through the atmosphere.  I too have had great fun with it slightly defocused - you certainly don't need a disco ball with that up there.  I saw this reported a few months ago - it sounds a bit more predictable than Betelgeuse https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/01/06/spectacular-collision-suns-will-create-new-star-night-sky-2022/

 

[northward]

8 hours ago, JOC said:

My son and I call Sirius the monster raving party star because of it's apparent disco light show through the atmosphere.  I too have had great fun with it slightly defocused - you certainly don't need a disco ball with that up there.  I saw this reported a few months ago - it sounds a bit more predictable than Betelgeuse https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/01/06/spectacular-collision-suns-will-create-new-star-night-sky-2022/

 

Wow this sounds amazing.  I can't wait for this to happen.  How cool. Thanks JOC

[DorsetBlue]

On ‎21‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 03:02, Sunshine said:

good question, you could be right, whether or not a star goes supernova depends on its size, look it up! it will become a red giant either way. 

the scientific explanation is it will either fizzle or pop! lol

 

 

Ah memories of my OU Astronomy BSc Unit.

The Sun will shrink to a White Dwarf once it has depleted all of it's Helium (Red Giant phase) and leave behind it's outer atmosphere as a planetary nebula.  To reach the fusing carbon stage, which leads to a Type II Supernova ,a star needs to be about 8-15 times bigger than the Sun.  At 15 times the mass of the Sun, Betelgeuse will end in a Type II Supernova.

[Sunshine]

Yes supernova ot won’t, expand past the orbit of Venus it may before shedding its outer layers it will hence the term fizzle lol. Which means I’m safe to use my solar scope for the next 4 billion years or so!.

[2STAR]

On 3/21/2018 at 06:14, Demonperformer said:

Just to clarify, Sirius itself is not multi-coloured, but is a white/blue-white star. The multi-coloured flashing is only a result of its light being diffracted as it passes through our atmosphere.

http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/sirius-the-brightest-star