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Uncommon variable star 32 EP

59 Ser

RA 276.8021° · Dec 0.1961° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
32 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 32

2 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Giant star · +6
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G0III+... — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • 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.

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 5.2 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Serpens.
  • 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
-0.59
bv
0.487
constellation
Ser
dist ly
469.2892
luminosity
149.9685
mag
5.2
name
59 Ser
spect
G0III+...
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
D
var max
5.185
var min
5.215

About 59 Ser

59 Ser is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 469.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ser, shines at apparent magnitude 5.2 and has spectral type G0III+....

Its spectrum reads G0III+... — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for 59 Ser in the constellation Ser. At apparent magnitude 5.2, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 59 Ser 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 59 Ser is an uncommon variable star

59 Ser scores 32 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Sun-like G-type star, Giant star, Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) 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.