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Uncommon variable star 29 EP

28 Aql

RA 289.9140° · Dec 12.3747° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
29 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 29

5 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Giant star · +6
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F0III — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the 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 5.5 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
0.457
bv
0.265
constellation
Aql
dist ly
337.2864
luminosity
57.1742
mag
5.53
name
28 Aql
spect
F0III
var amplitude
0.06
var designation
V1208
var max
5.504
var min
5.564

About 28 Aql

28 Aql is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 337.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aql, shines at apparent magnitude 5.53 and has spectral type F0III.

Its spectrum reads F0III — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for 28 Aql in the constellation Aql. At apparent magnitude 5.53, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 28 Aql 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 28 Aql is an uncommon variable star

28 Aql 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 6 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Yellow-white F-type star, Giant star, 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.