Betelgeuse – Challenging our Understanding for more than 2000 years

As a bright, colorful and variable star, Betelgeuse has attracted popular interest from the earliest times. As a prototypical evolved supergiant, it has been investigated with many photometric and spectroscopic techniques. With hundreds of focused studies, many measurements remain puzzling after decades of reflection. We begin our exploration of the Betelgeuse story with an illustrated historical tour of observations and some thoughts on interpretive paths.