About 89 Her
89 Her is a rare variable star. It sits in the constellation Her, shines at apparent magnitude 5.47 and has spectral type F2Iavar.
Its spectrum reads F2Iavar — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
Rare variable star 41 EP
89 Her
RA 268.8549° · Dec 26.0500° · star
Score breakdown
· 6 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Supergiant +18
- Naked-eye visible +8
- Variable star +5
- Gently variable +4
- Yellow-white F-type star +3
- A named variable star +3
Total score 41
9 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Variable star · +5
- Naked-eye visible · +8
- Yellow-white F-type star · +3
- Supergiant · +18
- Gently variable · +4
- A named variable star · +3
Trivia
What it actually is
- Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F2Iavar — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
- Where it is in life. It is a luminous supergiant — among the largest and rarest stars in the galaxy.
- 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.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 5.5 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Hercules.
- Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around June — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out yellow-white (B−V 0.3) — a shade brighter and crisper than our own Sun.
- Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.
Properties
- absmag
- -14.53
- bv
- 0.341
- constellation
- Her
- luminosity
- 56493697.4812
- mag
- 5.47
- name
- 89 Her
- spect
- F2Iavar
- var amplitude
- 0.17
- var designation
- V441
- var max
- 5.385
- var min
- 5.555
How to see it
Look for 89 Her in the constellation Her. At apparent magnitude 5.47, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.
Like any astronomical target, 89 Her 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 89 Her is a rare variable star
89 Her scores 41 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 9 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, Supergiant, 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.