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Rare variable star 44 EP

HR 6414

RA 259.1322° · Dec 1.2105° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
44 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Fades out of naked-eye view +16
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 44

6 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • 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 B5Vnn — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.
  • 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 Ophiuchus.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around June — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

absmag
-0.619
bv
0.023
constellation
Oph
dist ly
653.6192
luminosity
154.0281
mag
5.89
name
HR 6414
spect
B5Vnn
var amplitude
0.43
var designation
U
var max
5.872
var min
6.302

About HR 6414

HR 6414 is a rare variable star. It lies about 653.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Oph, shines at apparent magnitude 5.89 and has spectral type B5Vnn.

Its spectrum reads B5Vnn — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HR 6414 in the constellation Oph. At apparent magnitude 5.89, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 6414 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 6414 is a rare variable star

HR 6414 scores 44 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Hot blue B-type star, Main-sequence 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.