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Uncommon variable star 31 EP

HD 354963

RA 302.3701° · Dec 15.3124° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
31 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Dramatic variable (over 2 magnitudes) +20
  • Variable star +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 31

3 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Dramatic variable (over 2 magnitudes) · +20
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 331.1 thousand 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 F0 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • 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 11 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out brilliant white (B−V 0.1) — hotter and whiter than the Sun, the colour of Sirius or Vega.
  • Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.

Properties

absmag
-8.97
bv
0.12
constellation
Aql
luminosity
337287.3087
mag
11.03
name
HD 354963
spect
F0
var amplitude
2.32
var designation
QY
var max
10.955
var min
13.275

Nearby objects

About HD 354963

HD 354963 is an uncommon variable star. It sits in the constellation Aql, shines at apparent magnitude 11.03 and has spectral type F0.

Its spectrum reads F0 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 354963 in the constellation Aql. At apparent magnitude 11.03, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 354963 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 354963 is an uncommon variable star

HD 354963 scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Variable star, Yellow-white F-type star, Dramatic variable (over 2 magnitudes) 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.