Mysterious hot spots observed in Betelgeuse

On 29/04/2013 16:35, Poutnik wrote:

Martin Brown posted Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:21:49 +0100


It would may help to track Morning Star until full daylight.....

You can do it at my latitude even at midday. The trick really is looking
in *exactly* the right place and focussing at infinity. Standing in a
gap between two tall buildings is one way to do this.

The point is it is not easy for ordinary man to know exact position,
even if you know Right ascension / declination or azimute/elevation,
if you do not have handy some tools/devices for that.

Used to be true but these days there are any number of apps for GPS
enabled smart phones and tablets that can do it with relative ease.

The trick we used was knowing exactly where to look having pre computed
it using the edge of a building and a time. Once you have seen it you
pass it on to a small crowd and then quietly move away. No mention of
what it is - works better that way particularly if you get one or two
highly suggestible people who can see it and point out marvellous
imaginings to the others.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown