StarDate Susitna 12-29-19, by Kathleen Fleming

December 30, 2019 |

In this last StarDate of 2019, Kathleen talks about Venus as Evening Star, Quadrantid Meteor Shower, Earth at perihelion, and the extraordinary dimming of Betelgeuse.

The Quadrantids get their name from the constellation Quadrans Muralis, an obsolete constellation no longer recognized. Meteors will appear to stream from below the Big Dipper’s handle. Stellarium. Found on the website astrobob.areavoices.com. This is similar to our view to the northeast around 3am.
This NASA image shows the location of Betelgeuse within the constellation Orion (portions of the full star pattern not shown). Normally Betelgeuse is nearly as bright as Rigel (blue star lower right), but currently the red supergiant is dimming and might become a similar magnitude to Bellatrix (upper right).