"(to the tune of Richard Rodger's "Edelweiss":)

Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse
Bright red star in Orion
Soon I'm told you'll explode
So you're worth keeping my eye on.

Only two hundred parsecs away
And we know what this means
You're so near that some year
You'll blow us ll to smith'reens.

Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse
Speckle interferometry
Seems to show spots that glow
Spoil our spherical symm'try.

You're losing mass by convecting gas
To a stationary layer
Then there must be some dust
And an ejection sprayer.

Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse
You'll soon go supernova
When you burst I'll be first
Among those looking you over.

Matter in your circumstellar shell
Tenuous and so wide
Will in fact interact
With what's going on inside."

--Peter Jedicke, 1986 (in: Guide to Variable Stars (2005) by David Levy)


Royal Quiet Deluxe.


In Imitation of a Thought.