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Uncommon variable star 32 EP

HD 178695

RA 287.3166° · Dec 10.5525° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
32 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 32

2 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F2IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.
  • 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 8.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Aquila.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Properties

absmag
-0.949
bv
1.187
constellation
Aql
dist ly
2296.8734
luminosity
208.7373
mag
8.29
name
HD 178695
spect
F2IV
var amplitude
0.74
var designation
FM
var max
7.975
var min
8.715

About HD 178695

HD 178695 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 2,296.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aql, shines at apparent magnitude 8.29 and has spectral type F2IV.

Its spectrum reads F2IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 178695 in the constellation Aql. At apparent magnitude 8.29, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 178695 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 178695 is an uncommon variable star

HD 178695 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, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Yellow-white F-type star, Subgiant (leaving the main sequence), Strongly 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.