Catch the *Demon Star*This Month

You'll have three chances in November to see this winking star.
what will be more terrifying than a celestial entity dubbed the “demon superstar”? the fact that it’s known as that as it looks like one of the snakes of medusa is blinking proper at you.
for the ones now not up on their greek myths, perseus become the hero who lopped off the top of the scary gorgon monster who could turn you to stone with slightly a facet eye. and this cute lady had a headful of snakes for hair. so that’s why inside the perseus constellation, there are stars named after the gorgon (“gorgonea”), and right next to them is the snakey eye of the demon famous person, whose genuine name is algol (taken from the arabic for “demon’s head”). the illustration above indicates what the constellation would seem like as a drawing.

the cause why it seems like the famous person is winking at you is as it’s certainly made up of two stars orbiting each other. whenever the smaller one takes a spin around the larger one, it’s a celeb-on-celebrity eclipse. so as the mild dims and brightens, dims and brightens, it looks as if algol, the eye of the snake, is blinking or winking at you.


the other weird factor about algol is how precise it is: the light dims like clockwork each  days, 20 hours, and forty nine minutes. precisely. then it takes a few hours for it to enliven again. for the reason that this is the case, you’d assume you'll be capable of see algol all of the time, however because of the earth’s function to the solar, you may’t see it clearly except in november, and also you handiest see it exceptional while the moon is darkish or at least, now not very vivid. see this reachable megastar chart from nasa for where to look for it inside the night sky.

this 12 months, you've got three opportunities to capture the demon: nov. nine at 3:17 a.m., nov. 12 at 12:06 a.m., and nov. 29 at just before 5 a.m. according to nasa's tips, you should start checking about an hour before the eclipse, so you can see it at the same time as it’s nevertheless brilliant earlier than it dims. binoculars or a telescope are first-class, but if the sky is obvious and dark, you may even be able to see it together with your very own eyes. right luck! and don’t get grew to become to stone.

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