It’s all relative
Betelgeuse may have a sun-sized companion star
that orbits it about once every 2,100 days, astronomy writer Lisa Grossman reported in “Betelgeuse’s invisible buddy.”
The story describes Betelgeuse as “the red giant that marks Orion’s left shoulder.” Reader Chris Jespersen wrote: “I often see Betelgeuse on Orion’s right shoulder…. Am I mistaken?”
This is actually a matter of perspective, Grossman says. The ancient Greeks thought the Orion constellation resembled the figure of a hunter. Many people agree that this celestial hunter faces Earth. Betelgeuse represents what’s considered the hunter’s right shoulder, which is on the figure’s left from the perspective of Earth, she says.
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