Rare variable star 46 EP

HD 177230

RA 285.9959° · Dec -4.3172° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges

46 pts · Rare

Rare 50 pts → Epic

Wolf-Rayet star (shedding itself) +34
Variable star +5
Gently variable +4
A named variable star +3

Total score 46

4 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

Variable star · +5
Wolf-Rayet star (shedding itself) · +34
Gently variable · +4
A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 380.2 thousand times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.

What it actually is

Spectral class. Its spectrum reads WN8 (SB1) — a Wolf-Rayet star: a stellar monster shedding its own outer layers in a ferocious wind, on its way to a supernova.
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 10.9 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Aquila.
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 July — 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 0.5) — 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: -9.12
bv: 0.482
constellation: Aql
luminosity: 387257.6449
mag: 10.88
name: HD 177230
spect: WN8 (SB1)
var amplitude: 0.25
var designation: V1402
var max: 10.725
var min: 10.975

Nearby objects

About HD 177230

HD 177230 is a rare variable star. It sits in the constellation Aql, shines at apparent magnitude 10.88 and has spectral type WN8 (SB1).

Its spectrum reads WN8 (SB1) — a Wolf-Rayet star: a stellar monster shedding its own outer layers in a ferocious wind, on its way to a supernova.

How to see it

Look for HD 177230 in the constellation Aql. At apparent magnitude 10.88, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 177230 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 177230 is a rare variable star

HD 177230 scores 46 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Variable star, Wolf-Rayet star (shedding itself), 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.