Betelgeuse and Rigel: A tale of the two brightest stars in Orion

In February, I enjoyed views of Rigel as a double star using my 90-mm refractor. Rigel's companions (spectroscopic stars) orbiting Rigel. About 9.5 arcsecond angular separation. Quite a sight to enjoy viewing and ponder the distance between Rigel and the smaller light nearby :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigel, "A triple-star system is separated from Rigel by 9.5 arc seconds. It has an apparent magnitude of 6.7, making it 1/400th as bright as Rigel. Two stars in the system can be seen by large telescopes, and the brighter of the two is a spectroscopic binary. These three stars are all blue-white main sequence stars, each three to four times as massive as the Sun. Rigel and the triple system orbit a common center of gravity with a period estimated to be 24,000 years. The inner stars of the triple system orbit each other every 10 days, and the outer star orbits the inner pair every 63 years. A much fainter star, separated from Rigel and the others by nearly an arc minute, may be part of the same star system."

The combination of the brilliant Rigel with fainter blue-white star(s) nearby in the eyepiece is an enjoyable view. I see the system as a distinct double star system.
 
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Rigel was one of the early example case stars in Father Secchi's stellar classification system. He lumped the white and bluish-white stars together, due to their strong Hydrogen band, to make his Class I stars. Class II, yellow (caugh) included the Sun since his example cases included Capella.

Betelgeuse, no surprise, was another case example, which was his Class III (orange and red) stars.

His thousands of observations visually of stellar spectrums gave him his famous classifications. It was the spectral lines that formed these Classes (Types), but color was helpful and there is that association.

I too see Rigel with a hint of blue.

Interestingly, if you dragged Rigel to where alpha Cen is, then it would be as bright to us as a full Moon. :)
 
I would really appreciate Betelgeuse going supernova some time soon; that is, if it's not too much trouble. Note: Despite the winter night cold, brandy, coffee, Cheetos and irate wives are NOT an amateur Astronomer's friends.
 
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