Yah. Betelgeuse is big enough that at its distance of 642 light years from us it shows up as a disc on the Hubble scope. If it were placed where our sun is its outer edge would be beyond the orbit of Jupiter (5 AUs = 465 million miles). When it goes into a supernova it’s going to be awesome. It’s far enough that the wave front won’t cause any harm to Earth when it does blow. We’ll see the light show hundreds of years before the particles get here. Fascinating stuff.
And when it does blow for a year it’ll be at least as bright as the moon. The resultant nebula will fill the sky and we’ll eventually be in that nebula. Though that will take thousands of years. I love this stuff.
It shows as a disk in a regular scope too, just a very very small one. It also doesn’t twinkle much for the same reasons.
Aldebaran also shows as a disc too, but, it is close enough that when it is occluded by the Moon, it doesn’t just disappear like most stars, it fades as the disc is covered.
BIG stars!
Truly huge-
Now that would be news I would like to learn and hear about.
Instead the news is full of BS all engineered to make me think and act a certain way and contains “zero” actionable information.
I love a good fireworks show!!