We compare the absolute visual magnitude of the majority of bright O stars in the sky as predicted from their spectral type with the absolute magnitude calculated from their apparent magnitude and the Hipparcos parallax. We find that many stars appear to be much fainter than expected, up to five magnitudes. We find no evidence for a correlation between magnitude differences and the stellar rota...

Adopting a distance for RS Pup derived from a period-luminosity relation based on Cepheid parallaxes, it is shown that the phase-lag observations of the surrounding nebulosity by Kervella et al. are well fitted by a model of an equatorial disc at an angle of 8◦.1± 0◦.6 to the plane of the sky. The astrophysical implications of this are briefly mentioned.