This could, just possibly be important & urgent - Betelgeux (Alpha Orionis) looks **very** bright right now. 3.41 am South Australian time. Its cloudy-ish but fairly high in sky - looks like its nearly or equally as bright as Sirius and is very vividly red. Much more so than usual. Can anyone confirm or check this? Conditions here are not ideal with strong (full) moonlight & clouds. Also, yes, I *am* pretty tired. Its probably nothing, of course, just a false alarm or bright maxima but still ... if something is happening y'all may want to check this out. Of course, Betelguese is a variable star as well & maybe its just undergoing a brighter than usual maxima. (Apparent mag 0.0 is the brightest Betelgeux can reach according to Patrick Moore 'Brilliant Stars', 1996) Just clouded over outside but Betelguese is just punching through the clouds - very bright and red making a distinct first & negative mag A- shape triangle with Sirius & Rigel. I would estimate its much brighter than Rigel and approaching Sirius in apparent mag. I could be wrong but .. please check this out anyway if you can... --- Update 1: Now totally cloudy here @ 4.15 am Update 2: Still totally cloudy - now going to sleep. @ 4.30 am Adelaide time.