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Sat Dec 12, 2020 BSIG Presentation – 1:00 pm via Google Meet
Speaker: Bob Kerr
Topic: The ABC’s of Stars
The ABCs of Stars (Remember, it’s called star-gazing)
Under clear, dark skies it’s possible to see over 3,000 stars with just your eyes. Use a modest telescope or even binoculars, and this number quickly jumps to well over a 100,000 – just a fraction of our galaxy’s billions of stars.
Everywhere we look the universe seems to be busy with stars: making stars or making stuff out of stars (like planets and us). But bright stars have a confusing assortment of names, letters, and numbers, and their nightly patterns can be hard to follow.
Think about it: the smallest star is just a little larger than Jupiter, but there’s a star larger than the orbit of Saturn. The farthest star we can see is five billion light years away. The age of the oldest star known is estimated to be over 13 billion years (the sun is only 4.6 billion). Many stars change in brightness, and about half the stars in the sky are orbited by companion stars.
So what’s going on with all these stars? Join us, and let’s get some of this star-stuff figured out.