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Rare variable star 47 EP

HR 5519

RA 222.1585° · Dec -36.6347° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
47 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Fades out of naked-eye view +16
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 47

3 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Giant star · +6
  • Gently variable · +4
  • Fades out of naked-eye view · +16
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M5III — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
  • Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.
  • It changes. This star does not hold still: its brightness rises and falls on a rhythm of hours, days or years, either pulsing in size or being eclipsed by a companion.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 5.9 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Centaurus.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around May — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
-0.1
bv
1.369
constellation
Cen
dist ly
514.4416
luminosity
95.4993
mag
5.89
name
HR 5519
spect
M5III
var amplitude
0.25
var designation
V768
var max
5.78
var min
6.03

About HR 5519

HR 5519 is a rare variable star. It lies about 514.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cen, shines at apparent magnitude 5.89 and has spectral type M5III.

Its spectrum reads M5III — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

How to see it

Look for HR 5519 in the constellation Cen. At apparent magnitude 5.89, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 5519 is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why HR 5519 is a rare variable star

HR 5519 scores 47 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Cool red M-type star, Giant star, Gently variable, Fades out of naked-eye view and A named variable star — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.