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Epic variable star 50 EP

HD 186047

RA 295.2376° · Dec 32.6183° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
50 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Carbon star (sooty red) +24
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 50

28 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads C6.4e — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
  • 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 Cygnus.
  • 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.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 32.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.118
bv
2.917
constellation
Cyg
dist ly
1832.3372
luminosity
243.8934
mag
7.63
name
HD 186047
spect
C6.4e
var amplitude
0.39
var designation
TT
var max
7.428
var min
7.818

About HD 186047

HD 186047 is an epic variable star. It lies about 1,832.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cyg, shines at apparent magnitude 7.63 and has spectral type C6.4e.

Its spectrum reads C6.4e — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.

How to see it

Look for HD 186047 in the constellation Cyg. At apparent magnitude 7.63, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 186047 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 186047 is an epic variable star

HD 186047 scores 50 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 28 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Carbon star (sooty red), Deep red 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.