You can see it too: a star is changing

A week or so ago I was getting out of the car parked on the curb outside my house and looked up. I had heard about Betelgeuse, one of the stars in the Orion constellation. Lately it was growing dimmer. I wanted to see if I could notice it and sure enough I could. With the naked eye.

You can too because this is one of the more noticeable stars in the sky.

Most people that look up at the sky at night in the northern hemisphere are familiar with Orion’s belt, three stars in a closely near straight line. Above that line there are two stars and below that line there are two stars. The star in the upper left is Betelgeuse, and it’s different than it was even a few months ago.

Betelgeuse is a very big star many many times larger than our own sun. It is expected that this star will explode one day and although it’s unlikely to do it within our lifetime, this dimming of the star and it’s exceptionally orange color visible with a naked eye it does indicate that Betelgeuse could be near to going supernova.

So now you know how to find it, go out and look at it the next time it gets dark around your house and the sky is clear.