Courtesy of: _Sky_&_Telescope_:
ORION'S TRAPEZIUM VARIABLE STAR IN ECLIPSE
On the night of February 26-27, the eclipsing binary star Theta-1
Orionis
A should be much dimmer than usual for observers in western North
America
and Hawaii. It's the westernmost of the four bright stars making up the
Orion Nebula's famous Trapezium. Learn more about this stellar eclipse
here:
http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/objects/variablestars/
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In a nutshell, the eclipse of the Trap's A-star by its unseen companion
should be centered near 11:20pm PST Wednesday night, with the time from
the final stage of its fading to the start of its recovery taking about
five hours. A's magnitude should drop from 6.7 to 8 or so.
I'm afraid to check tomorrow's forecast. Although I'm admittedly not a
variable star observer, this sounds pretty interesting. I wonder if the
eclipse will make the E-star (mag 11), 4-arcsecs away, stand out a bit
more?
...Bob...
Bob Czerwinski