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Rare variable star 36 EP

HR 5930

RA 239.1391° · Dec -14.8294° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
36 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Supergiant +18
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 36

14 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A2Ib/II — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • Where it is in life. It is a supergiant, hundreds of times wider than the Sun.
  • 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 6.1 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Libra.
  • 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
2.568
bv
0.243
constellation
Lib
dist ly
166.6611
luminosity
8.1809
mag
6.11
name
HR 5930
spect
A2Ib/II
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
HR
var max
6.098
var min
6.128

About HR 5930

HR 5930 is a rare variable star. It lies about 166.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Lib, shines at apparent magnitude 6.11 and has spectral type A2Ib/II.

Its spectrum reads A2Ib/II — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HR 5930 in the constellation Lib. At apparent magnitude 6.11, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 5930 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 5930 is a rare variable star

HR 5930 scores 36 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 14 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, On the zodiac, White A-type star, Supergiant, Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) 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.