31 replies to this topic

[PeterDob]

I've always been a bit sceptical about this but inspired by Mel's sketch I decided to give it another (and more serious) try. And to my astonishment I saw it! It was extremely faint and I had to look carefully through the different background shades, but the somewhat darker triangle around Betelgeuse was visible. My sketch isn't nearly as impressive as Mel's but this is more or less how I saw it.

 

The sketch's already two weeks old but I didn't manage to finish it until today...

 

Cheers!

 

Peter

 

[frank5817]

Peter,

 

Very impressive.

The places I observe at in recent years would not allow seeing this darkening

around Betelgeuse.

Impressive capture.

 

Frank

[Jaycin]

Peter,

 

That is an amazing sketch of your observation of Betelgeuse! I appreciate your sharing it with us!

 

Clear Skies!

[Special Ed]

Peter,

 

I didn't know about this ring--guess I missed Mel's post.  Beautiful drawing!  

Edited by Special Ed, 14 April 2016 - 12:39 PM.

[Warmvet]

I had to be just the right light to see the triangular darness in your sketch. I saw Mels post and also put this object on my list. Your sketch looks great!

 

Cindy

[JerryOrr]

Great sketch.  I only recently learned about this.  I shows up quite well, on occasion, as a loose netting of dark nebula around Betelguese, through my 20x80's.

[Sheliak_sp]

Wow Peter, it's awesome, you got it! And you made an excellent sketch! It makes me want to go after this object with my new 22x100 binos, maybe next month or the next season, but I will follow your steps with this binos for sure! Thanks for sharing it!

 

Migue

[David Gray]

Nice……….I think you got pretty well Peter……….

 

I went on to Sky Map Pro 11 Level 6 and zoomed out a few clicks and attached is a portion down to mag 12.5. The blue line (2º) joins Betelgeuse and 52 Ori.

 

On a mag. 10 limit chart it starts disappear; but going down to 14 it is still apparent.  After that the PC hangs up – too many stars I guess!

 

Dave.

 

[niteskystargazer]

Peter,

 

Good sketch of Betelgeuse's Ring  .

 

CS,KLU,

 

  ,

 

Tom

[PeterDob]

Thank you so much, guys!!! Also thank you, David, for sharing this map. Actually, before seeing Mel's sketch I'd never heard of it and also on Google I couldn't find anything about it (or perhaps I didn't look well enough). So I'm very happy that your map confirms what I saw.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

Edited by PeterDob, 15 April 2016 - 07:37 AM.

[Randolph Jay]

Really beautiful sketch of an elusive target...!  Won't ever see this one in my skies.  Thank you!

Regards,

Randolph

[Mel Bartels]

Tom Pickett first posted an image of Betelgeuse's Ring or 'Pickett's Bell' as he calls it, to FB on Nov 23, 2015.

 

His comments in part from FB, "Here is an image of the star Betelgeuse and this strange bell shaped dark nebula that circles the star... A few friends of mine and myself did a search to try and find a name for this strange bell shaped object and nowhere is it listed, so I'm calling it "Pickett's Bell" for now until someone can find an official name for it... I hope you like this image.."

 

I searched previous wide angle images of Orion and checked star atlases and immediately was struck that the ring has been imaged for many years but no one noticed, and that atlases show the ring by absence of stars. Also, Barnard a hundred years ago noticed at least portions of it because some Barnard Dark Nebula are involved.

 

So I took a look, and sure enough, while portions of it are immediately obvious, and while the fainter portions take effort, time and good skies, it is visible! One never knows of course and there's the issue that digital images more and more diverge from the naive appearance as if we might one day find ourselves floating much closer to the object in space.

 

That you saw it and provide your perspective is wonderful! It's a most interesting object because of the variable intensity, newness, extreme size and omission by all of us over decades.

 

Mel

[Uwe Pilz]

It is always a question whether one sees a real ring or an optical effect from the scope (an internal reflection). The question can be answered by observing another star of similar brightness. This is also the first step for observing the Merope nebual (which is much easier of course).

[Tom Pickett]

Tom Pickett first posted an image of Betelgeuse's Ring or 'Pickett's Bell' as he calls it, to FB on Nov 23, 2015.

 

His comments in part from FB, "Here is an image of the star Betelgeuse and this strange bell shaped dark nebula that circles the star... A few friends of mine and myself did a search to try and find a name for this strange bell shaped object and nowhere is it listed, so I'm calling it "Pickett's Bell" for now until someone can find an official name for it... I hope you like this image.."

 

I searched previous wide angle images of Orion and checked star atlases and immediately was struck that the ring has been imaged for many years but no one noticed, and that atlases show the ring by absence of stars. Also, Barnard a hundred years ago noticed at least portions of it because some Barnard Dark Nebula are involved.

 

So I took a look, and sure enough, while portions of it are immediately obvious, and while the fainter portions take effort, time and good skies, it is visible! One never knows of course and there's the issue that digital images more and more diverge from the naive appearance as if we might one day find ourselves floating much closer to the object in space.

 

That you saw it and provide your perspective is wonderful! It's a most interesting object because of the variable intensity, newness, extreme size and omission by all of us over decades.

 

Mel

Mel Thanks for your post... I added more sub frames from 2016 to the image from 2015 you are taking about here so I thought I would post it for you guys here... it is a real bell shaped ring around Betelgeuse.

 

Equipment Details

Camera: Canon EOS T3i/600D Stock (Not Modified)
Lens: Canon 100mm FD F2.8 SSC Set At F4
Exposure: 4 Minutes (240 Seconds) Each
ISO: 1600
Number of Light Frames: 65
Number of Dark Frames: 10
Number of Bias Frames: 10
Shooting Date/Time 10/11/2016 2:07:30 AM

Camera: Canon EOS T3i/600D Stock (Not Modified)
Lens: Canon EL 75-300mm set at 150mm F5.0
Exposure: 2 Minutes (120 Seconds) Each
ISO: 1600
Number of Stacked Images: 137
Number of Dark Frames: 20
Number of Bias Frames: 20
Shooting Date/Time 11/21/2015 11:47:27 PM

Mount: Celestron CG4 with Clock Drive
Stacking Software: DeepSkyStacker
Processing Software: Photoshop CS6, Camera Raw

Attached Thumbnails

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[JawZziff]

Wild.

[iainp]

Marvellous! A new one for me too. "It was extremely faint..." . So faint in fact, I had to pull the curtains to see it ;-)

Iain 

[azure1961p]

Peter its been too long. Hope all's been well on your end. You were missed.

 

Nice work. Never saw this myself. Interesting.

 

Pete

[blindsmokeybear]

Mel Thanks for your post... I added more sub frames from 2016 to the image from 2015 you are taking about here so I thought I would post it for you guys here... it is a real bell shaped ring around Betelgeuse.

 

Equipment Details

Camera: Canon EOS T3i/600D Stock (Not Modified)
Lens: Canon 100mm FD F2.8 SSC Set At F4
Exposure: 4 Minutes (240 Seconds) Each
ISO: 1600
Number of Light Frames: 65
Number of Dark Frames: 10
Number of Bias Frames: 10
Shooting Date/Time 10/11/2016 2:07:30 AM

Camera: Canon EOS T3i/600D Stock (Not Modified)
Lens: Canon EL 75-300mm set at 150mm F5.0
Exposure: 2 Minutes (120 Seconds) Each
ISO: 1600
Number of Stacked Images: 137
Number of Dark Frames: 20
Number of Bias Frames: 20
Shooting Date/Time 11/21/2015 11:47:27 PM

Mount: Celestron CG4 with Clock Drive
Stacking Software: DeepSkyStacker
Processing Software: Photoshop CS6, Camera Raw

I tried going after the bell last night after learning about it from a youtuber but I wasn't able to capture it. I stacked about 30 1-minute frames, so after reading your process I guess I'll have to increase my exposure and integration times to get it. 

[DDEV]

I realise I'm joining the conversation late, but my goodness, what an interesting phenomenon. Until now I've never heard of the darkened ring / triangle surrounding Betelgeuse. This area of night sky just keeps giving. Many thanks people for bringing this to our attention.

Clear skies,

Darren.

Edited by DDEV, 23 February 2020 - 05:02 PM.

[Astropetev]

Later again!  A couple of years ago a friend of mine told me about this interesting target, and when I looked more carefully at an image of mine, there it is!  And this image was taken in 2011 -duh - I missed out naming it.  But well done, Tom   My image is here:

 

http://www.madpc.co....02011.htm#Orion

 

You will see that it was also used for the Jodrell Bank brochure around that time.  I don't know if it is in the current brochure.  But as so often happens when images are printed in magazines etc. the 'Bell' is barely visible.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

Edited by Astropetev, 21 February 2022 - 10:14 AM.

[bphaneuf]

Beautifully rendered Peter!  I agree with Frank that the triangle in your image is subtle, and I'm sure faithfully duplicates your impression in the EP.  Thanks for posting this! No END of fabulous things to see and learn.

-b

[JMSchwartz]

Love the color of betlegeuse the ruddy red as well as the suttle Pickerings  Bell.

Tried to see this feature with no luck from bortle 6 to 7 skies but your star color was amazingly  accurate. 

CSS JMS

[Ernest_SPB]

Picture is great, but to catch actual Betelgeuse's Ring or 'Pickett's Bell' requires twice more wider FOV.

With the same AFOV (70 deg. I guess) it should be no more than 10-12x...

So dark lanes of the image was result of strong wish to spot anything. May be result of retina sensitivity obscuration near image of bright star. 

[Tom Pickett]

My new image of Betelgeuse and Pickett's Bell 

 

The Star Betelgeuse And Pickett's Bell, RGB 12-19-2023

 

Good Everything Everyone...  I hope all of you having a good day...

 

Finally I was able to finish my RGB... I never thought photographing Betelgeuse with a 100mm lens would be so beautiful in this area of Orion... The star colors are just insane....  I think it's due to those long 30 minute exposures that I take....

 

In this shot Betelgeuse looks as if it's inside a bubble of dust and gas...

 

As they say "Orion just keeps on giving" lol ?? ??????????

 

I hope all of you like it.... :-)

 

I plan to add more time to this image with some H-Alpha and OIII but it will have to be in a few weeks when the Moon is down and the cold cloudy weather has cleared up...

 

Have a good day Everyone and go safely.

 

The Details

 

Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star of spectral type M1-2 and one of the largest visible to the naked eye. It is usually the tenth-brightest star in the night sky and, after Rigel, the second-brightest in the constellation of Orion. It is a distinctly reddish, semiregular variable star whose apparent magnitude, varying between +0.0 and +1.6, has the widest range displayed by any first-magnitude star. At near-infrared wavelengths, Betelgeuse is the brightest star in the night sky. Its Bayer designation is a Orionis, Latinised to Alpha Orionis and abbreviated Alpha Ori or a Ori.

 

If it were at the center of our Solar System, its surface would lie beyond the asteroid belt and it would engulf the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Calculations of Betelgeuse's mass range from slightly under ten to a little over twenty times that of the Sun. For various reasons, its distance has been quite difficult to measure; current best estimates are of the order of 500–600 light-years from the Sun – a comparatively wide uncertainty for a relatively nearby star. Its absolute magnitude is about -6. Less than 10 million years old, Betelgeuse has evolved rapidly because of its large mass and is expected to end its evolution with a supernova explosion, most likely within 100,000 years. When Betelgeuse explodes, it will shine as bright as the half-Moon for more than three months; life on Earth will be unharmed. Having been ejected from its birthplace in the Orion OB1 association – which includes the stars in Orion's Belt – this runaway star has been observed to be moving through the interstellar medium at a speed of 30 km/s, creating a bow shock over four light-years wide.

 

In 1920, Betelgeuse became the first extrasolar star whose photosphere's angular size was measured. Subsequent studies have reported an angular diameter (i.e., apparent size) ranging from 0.042 to 0.056 arcseconds; that range of determinations is ascribed to non-sphericity, limb darkening, pulsations and varying appearance at different wavelengths. It is also surrounded by a complex, asymmetric envelope, roughly 250 times the size of the star, caused by mass loss from the star itself. The Earth-observed angular diameter of Betelgeuse is exceeded only by those of R Doradus and the Sun.

 

Starting in October 2019, Betelgeuse began to dim noticeably, and by mid-February 2020 its brightness had dropped by a factor of approximately 3, from magnitude 0.5 to 1.7. It then returned to a more normal brightness range, reaching a peak of 0.0 visual and 0.1 V-band magnitude in April 2023. Infrared observations found no significant change in luminosity over the last 50 years, suggesting that the dimming was due to a change in extinction around the star rather than a more fundamental change. A study using the Hubble Space Telescope suggests that occluding dust was created by a surface mass ejection; this material was cast millions of miles from the star, and then cooled to form the dust that caused the dimming.

 

Equipment Details

 

Scope/Lens: Canon EF 100mm F2.8 Macro USM Set At F 5.6
Reducer: Non
Camera ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro Mono w/Filter Wheel
Filter Wheel: ZWO 8 Position Filter Wheel
Filters Used: Astronomik 1.25 Red, Green, Blue

 

Mount: Takahashi EM-200 Temma 2M
Guide Scope: William Optics M-G50RIII + M-GRIIIRD Guide Scope
Guide Camera: ZWO ATI 120MM Mono
Guide Software: PHD2 v2.6.9dev5
Goto Software: Stellarium v0.21.0

 

Imaging Software: APT Astro Photography Tool v4.01 For ZWO 1600MM Camera
Stacking Software: DeepSkyStacker 64 bit v4.2.6 Beta
Processing Software: Photoshop CS6 And Adobe Camera Raw

 

Photoshop CS6 Plugins

 

AstroFlat Pro
Astronomy Tools Actions
Annie’s Astro Actions

ASCOM: Platform 6

 

Exposure Details

 

Exposure: Red 30 Minutes Each (15hrs Total Exposure Time.)
Gain Set To: 0
Offset: 0
Temp: -5c
Bin: 1x1
Filters: Astronomik 1.25 Red
Number of Stacked Images: 30
Number of Dark Frames: 30
Number of Bias Frames: 30
Number of Flat Frames: 0
Number of Dark Flat Frames: 0

 

Exposure: Green 30 Minutes Each (15hrs Total Exposure Time.)
Gain Set To: 0
Offset: 0
Temp: -5c
Bin: 1x1
Filters: Astronomik 1.25 Green
Number of Stacked Images: 30
Number of Dark Frames: 30
Number of Bias Frames: 30
Number of Flat Frames: 0
Number of Dark Flat Frames: 0

 

Exposure: Blue 30 Minutes Each (15hrs Total Exposure Time.)
Gain Set To: 0
Offset: 0
Temp: -5c
Bin: 1x1
Filters: Astronomik 1.25 Blue
Number of Stacked Images: 30
Number of Dark Frames: 30
Number of Bias Frames: 30
Number of Flat Frames: 0
Number of Dark Flat Frames: 0

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Robin]

Wow, this is an object that I have never paid attention to.

Do we know, whether or not this dark nebula is physically associated with Betelgeuse? At 550 light years distance, 2° radius would correspond to 19 light years. This would be quite a large structure.

 

Clear skies

Robin