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Thursday, 21 January 2021

A colourful giant in the dawn sky!

For some reason, I've never really looked through a telescope at Arcturus, the leading star of the constellation Bootes. The 3rd brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere, Arcturus is a red giant: it's 'burned' off much of its core hydrogen and has expanded until it is 25 times larger than the Sun and many times more luminous. 

Looking at this beautiful orangey-red star early this morning, I was struck by its pairing with a blue star just below: if you thought stars are all white, it's worth having a look!



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