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Common variable star 15 EP

HD 177708

RA 286.5758° · Dec -11.6493° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
15 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 15

7 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A2 + A7 — 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.
  • 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 7.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Aquila.
  • 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 July — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 9.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.473
bv
0.286
constellation
Aql
dist ly
548.1613
luminosity
22.4285
mag
7.6
name
HD 177708
spect
A2 + A7
var amplitude
0.05
var designation
V805
var max
7.581
var min
7.631

About HD 177708

HD 177708 is a common variable star. It lies about 548.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aql, shines at apparent magnitude 7.6 and has spectral type A2 + A7.

Its spectrum reads A2 + A7 — 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 177708 in the constellation Aql. At apparent magnitude 7.6, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 177708 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 177708 is a common variable star

HD 177708 scores 15 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Variable star, White A-type 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.