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Epic variable star 51 EP

HD 136200

RA 228.2122° · Dec 75.4712° · star

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Score breakdown

· 9 badges
51 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Red dwarf +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 51

27 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Red dwarf · +6
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M... — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
  • 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 8 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Ursa Minor.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 56.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-2.007
bv
1.673
constellation
UMi
dist ly
3197.608
luminosity
553.0953
mag
7.95
name
HD 136200
spect
M...
var amplitude
0.16
var designation
TW
var max
7.864
var min
8.024

About HD 136200

HD 136200 is an epic variable star. It lies about 3,197.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMi, shines at apparent magnitude 7.95 and has spectral type M....

Its spectrum reads M... — 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 HD 136200 in the constellation UMi. At apparent magnitude 7.95, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 136200 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 HD 136200 is an epic variable star

HD 136200 scores 51 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 27 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 9 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Never sets (northern circumpolar), Cool red M-type star, Deep red star, Red dwarf, Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) and Gently variable — 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.