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Rare variable star 36 EP

HD 192281

RA 303.1380° · Dec 40.2682° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
36 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Blazing O-type star +26
  • Variable star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 36

14 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Blazing O-type star · +26
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads O5e — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.
  • 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 7.5 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out yellow-white (B−V 0.3) — a shade brighter and crisper than our own Sun.
  • 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.

By the numbers

  • Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 7410 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

Properties

absmag
-12.45
bv
0.309
constellation
Cyg
luminosity
8317637.711
mag
7.55
name
HD 192281
spect
O5e
var amplitude
0.04
var designation
V2011
var max
7.525
var min
7.565

About HD 192281

HD 192281 is a rare variable star. It sits in the constellation Cyg, shines at apparent magnitude 7.55 and has spectral type O5e.

Its spectrum reads O5e — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.

How to see it

Look for HD 192281 in the constellation Cyg. At apparent magnitude 7.55, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 192281 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 192281 is a rare variable star

HD 192281 scores 36 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 14 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Variable star, Blazing O-type star, Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) 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.