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Epic variable star 51 EP

Polis

RA 273.4409° · Dec -21.0588° · star

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Score breakdown

· 9 badges
51 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Toward the galactic centre +8
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 51

27 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Toward the galactic centre · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Giant star · +6
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B2III: — 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 a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.
  • 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 3.8 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Sagittarius.
  • 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 June — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out brilliant white (B−V 0.2) — hotter and whiter than the Sun, the colour of Sirius or Vega.
  • 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
-16.16
bv
0.195
constellation
Sgr
luminosity
253512863.0498
mag
3.84
name
Polis
named
yes
spect
B2III:
var amplitude
0.12
var designation
Mu
var max
3.808
var min
3.928

About Polis

Polis is an epic variable star. It sits in the constellation Sgr, shines at apparent magnitude 3.84 and has spectral type B2III:.

Its spectrum reads B2III: — 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 Polis in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 3.84, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Polis 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 Polis is an epic variable star

Polis 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, Naked-eye visible, Has a proper name, Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac, Hot blue B-type star, Giant star 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.