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Common variable star 21 EP

HD 181848

RA 291.3229° · Dec -57.3760° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
21 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Orange K-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 21

1 more point to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Giant star · +6
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 2.9 million 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 K3III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • 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.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 8.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Pavo.
  • 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out orange (B−V 1.4) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.

Properties

absmag
-11.32
bv
1.383
constellation
Pav
luminosity
2937649.652
mag
8.68
name
HD 181848
spect
K3III
var amplitude
0.13
var designation
V371
var max
8.622
var min
8.752

Nearby objects

About HD 181848

HD 181848 is a common variable star. It sits in the constellation Pav, shines at apparent magnitude 8.68 and has spectral type K3III.

Its spectrum reads K3III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 181848 in the constellation Pav. At apparent magnitude 8.68, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 181848 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 181848 is a common variable star

HD 181848 scores 21 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Orange K-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.