Photometry of the Variable Bright Red Supergiant Betelgeuse from the Ground and from Space with the BRITE Nano-satellites

Robert B. Minor, Edward Guinan, Richard Wasatonic Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) is a large, luminous semi-regular red supergiant of spectral class M1.5-2Iab. It is the 8^th brightest star in the night sky. Betelgeuse is 30,000 times more luminous than the Sun and 700 times larger. It has an estimated age of ~8 +/- 2 Myr. Betelgeuse explode in a Type II supernova (anytime within the next million years). When it explodes, it will shine with about the intensity of a full moon and may be visible during the day. However, it is too far away to cause any major damage to Earth. Photometry of this pre-supernova star has been ongoing at Villanova for nearly 45 years. These observations are being used to define the complex brightness variations of this star. Semi-regular periodic light variations have been found with periods of 385 days up to many years. These light variations are used to study its unstable atmosphere and resulting complex pulsations. Over the last 15 years, it has been observed by Wasatonic who has accumulated a large photometric database. The ground-based observations are limited to precisions of 1.5%, and due to poor weather, limit observations to about 1-2 times per week. However, with the recent successful launch of the BRITE Nano-satellites (http://www.brite-constellation.at) during 2013-14, it is possible to secure high precision photometry of bright stars, including Betelgeuse, continuously for up to 3 months. Villanova has participated in the BRITE guest investigators program and has been awarded observing time and data rights many bright stars, including Betelgeuse. BRITE blue and red observations of Betelgeuse were carried out during the Nov-Feb 2013-14 season and the 2014-15. These datasets were given to Villanova and have been combined with coexistent photometry from Wasatonic. Although BRITE's red data is saturated, the blue data is useable. The BRITE datasets were combined with our ground-based V, red, and near-IR photometry. Problems were uncovered with the some of the BRITE data, but they were resolved for the most part. We present and discuss the results obtained so far.