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Uncommon variable star 28 EP

Iot TrA

RA 246.9888° · Dec -64.0579° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
28 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Variable star +5
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 28

6 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F4IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.
  • 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 5.3 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Triangulum Australe.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • 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
2.336
bv
0.383
constellation
TrA
dist ly
126.5642
luminosity
10.1298
mag
5.28
name
Iot TrA
spect
F4IV
var amplitude
0.09
var designation
Iot
var max
5.222
var min
5.312

About Iot TrA

Iot TrA is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 126.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation TrA, shines at apparent magnitude 5.28 and has spectral type F4IV.

Its spectrum reads F4IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for Iot TrA in the constellation TrA. At apparent magnitude 5.28, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Iot TrA 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 Iot TrA is an uncommon variable star

Iot TrA scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Yellow-white F-type star, Subgiant (leaving the main sequence), Gently variable 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.