Does anyone else think their something strange about the star Algol in the constellation perseus?

It's very name, Algol, comes from the Arabic Al Gol, or the ghoul. One of it's common names is the Demon Star. It is, indeed, an eclipsing binary, with a period (I believe) around 2.9 days. There are actually two maxima and two minima. The dimmest minima comes when the large very dim (to us) star very nearly eclipses the brighter of the pair, missing only a small portion of the bright one. About 1.45 days later, when the small one eclipse the larger one, there is a small drop in the total light output.Does anyone else think their something strange about the star Algol in the constellation perseus?Wait. I will look.Does anyone else think their something strange about the star Algol in the constellation perseus?
Yes -- it's looking at me kind of funny.Does anyone else think their something strange about the star Algol in the constellation perseus?It's brightness can vary because it's actually an eclipsing binary (two stars orbit each other and we see their brightness change as one star passes in front of another).Does anyone else think their something strange about the star Algol in the constellation perseus?
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/鈥?/a>



this is rather lovelyDoes anyone else think their something strange about the star Algol in the constellation perseus?The name Algol comes from an Arabic word meaning "the night-walking, flesh-eating demon", while the Chinese name for the star means "piled up corpses". So you are not alone!

Actually, Algol was the first known star to vary in brightness. It has the good luck to have stars near it in the sky equal to its appearance both at brightest and dimmest. Algol is two stars which go around one another. One is rather dim, so when it passes in front of the brighter star as seen from Earth, which happens every 2 day 18+ hours, the view we have shows the star dimming for a few hours, and then going back to normal.

Eclipsing binaries like Algol are very valuable to astronomers, as they are the easiest stars to determine size, density, mass. all sorts of things.