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Epic variable star 61 EP

HR 6833

RA 274.4010° · Dec -34.1073° · star

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Score breakdown

· 10 badges
61 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Fades out of naked-eye view +16
  • Toward the galactic centre +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 61

17 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Toward the galactic centre · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5
  • Blue-white star · +5
  • 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 B3/B4IV/V — 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.
  • 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 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 19.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.636
bv
-0.096
constellation
Sgr
dist ly
1113.1603
luminosity
393.0067
mag
6.03
name
HR 6833
spect
B3/B4IV/V
var amplitude
0.21
var designation
RS
var max
5.995
var min
6.205

About HR 6833

HR 6833 is an epic variable star. It lies about 1,113.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr, shines at apparent magnitude 6.03 and has spectral type B3/B4IV/V.

Its spectrum reads B3/B4IV/V — 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 6833 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 6.03, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 6833 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 6833 is an epic variable star

HR 6833 scores 61 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 17 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 10 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac, Hot blue B-type star, Subgiant (leaving the main sequence), Blue-white 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.