HEADS UP Betelguese eclipse

[bomberbaz]

This popped up on my phone, 12th December.  I put it in here as a heads up for both imagers and visual but don't blink or you'll miss it. 

Asteroid Will Cover Betelgeuse, May Reveal Its Visible Surface - Sky & Telescope - Sky & Telescope (skyandtelescope.org)

UPDATE: Not visible from the uk, apologies for my oversight here.

Edited November 18, 2023 by bomberbaz

[Knighty2112]

Very narrow path to view it. Sadly not viewable from the UK as to far north.

[bomberbaz]

6 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Very narrow path to view it. Sadly not viewable from the UK as to far north.

Really, I honestly must have overlooked that, what a bummer.

[Paul M]

We could pop down to our place in Alicante and view this from my rooftop observatory, but we don't have one and I don't have one!

Not a bright asteroid at 14ish so not even a telescopic conjunction. Anyway, from my home location SkySafari has it passing 1.1" seconds from Betelgeuse!

Indeed, What a bummer! I read somewhere that Betelgeuse is a distinct non-point source so there may well be some very worthwhile photometry to be done along the eclipse path.

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Paul M

[Albir phil]

2 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Really, I honestly must have overlooked that, what a bummer.

Thank for the heads up I'm in Spain's Costa Blanca so I will get ready for it,should be interesting to see if I can image it😳

[Phil Fargaze]

On 18/11/2023 at 22:30, Paul M said:

I read somewhere that Betelgeuse is a distinct non-point source so there may well be some very worthwhile photometry to be done along the eclipse path.

Indeed, the event is predicted to be annular, so because of this there is a coordinated campaign for observers to extract the maximum scientific results. I wish I could have travelled to Spain for the event but I didn`t really get organised for it. Here are some links with some more in depth information.

https://occultations.org/publications/rasc/2023/20231212Leona.htm

https://www.iota-es.de/betelgeuse2023.html

[Paul M]

39 minutes ago, Phil Fargaze said:

I wish I could have travelled to Spain for the event but I didn`t really get organised for it

I can imagine the excitement for those lucky enough to be along the ocultation path. I'm not sure I organised enough to collect coherent data, but I'd love to have a fast camera rolling and get a light curve, maybe.

Good luck to those that are involved! As boring as it might be, there's value in negative observations on the edge of the path too!

[Phil Fargaze]

It will be a late night for a working day but there is talk of a live feed being arranged so I`ll keep an eye out and post details here. 

[Phil Fargaze]

There has been an announcement for a live feed of the event, link here https://www.virtualtelescope.eu/webtv/

 

[Bivanus]

I am trully glad for the live feed , I have clounds within clouds AND a head ache 🥲

[Phil Fargaze]

Excellent web page set up HERE shows general info, cloud cover and some more live links.  Approximate time of the event for the different locations is  shown. Looking at the predictions, the mid event time is about 10 seconds in duration with a mag drop of 1 or 2.8. A keen watch will be needed because Betelgeuse might not completely disappear but it should visibly dim. 

[Phil Fargaze]

I could only get onto one live view because the others were clouded. However the one I was watching had Betelgeuse a bit too much saturated on the screen plus passing cloud made it unable for me to notice the actual occultation 

[Steve Ward]

Best watched at 0.25x  I found .

 

[Simon Pepper]

Anyone know if there anything with a bit more focal length my eyes are struggling to see anything here. I think I see a dip, but there is also some cloud there which could have caused it? 

[Mandy D]

2 minutes ago, Simon Pepper said:

Anyone know if there anything with a bit more focal length my eyes are struggling to see anything here. I think I see a dip, but there is also some cloud there which could have caused it? 

In Thierry's video it dims out slowly, then comes back slowly, as you might expect. I watched it earlier today and the dip is very noticeable, but you may have to watch a few times before you see it.

[Paul M]

17 hours ago, Phil Fargaze said:

Excellent web page set up HERE

Some very impressive dips in those graphs in the link above!

[Phil Fargaze]

Yes a nice collection of light curves with more to follow I would think.  Its  going to be interesting to see what results the subsequent analysis brings up.  

[orion25]

18 hours ago, Steve Ward said:

Best watched at 0.25x  I found .

 

Thanks for sharing this, Steve, and merci, Thierry!  I first noticed dimming around the 4-second mark, peaking around the 10-second mark, and recovering by the 14-second mark. As noted, it's more easily seen at .25x; the effect is subtle.

Edited December 13, 2023 by orion25