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Uncommon variable star 29 EP

HD 168403

RA 275.3100° · Dec -39.0218° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
29 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Bright giant +12
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 29

5 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A0II/III(p) — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • Where it is in life. It is a bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.
  • 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 6.8 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Corona Australis.
  • 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
0.693
bv
0.128
constellation
CrA
dist ly
535.5599
luminosity
46.0045
mag
6.77
name
HD 168403
spect
A0II/III(p)
var amplitude
0.07
var designation
V715
var max
6.739
var min
6.809

About HD 168403

HD 168403 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 535.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation CrA, shines at apparent magnitude 6.77 and has spectral type A0II/III(p).

Its spectrum reads A0II/III(p) — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HD 168403 in the constellation CrA. At apparent magnitude 6.77, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 168403 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 HD 168403 is an uncommon variable star

HD 168403 scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, White A-type star, Bright giant, 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.