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Rare variable star 45 EP

31 Cyg

RA 303.4079° · Dec 46.7413° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
45 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Bright giant +12
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Orange K-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 45

5 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K2II+... — 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 bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.
  • 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 3.8 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
-3.365
bv
1.27
constellation
Cyg
dist ly
883.8916
luminosity
1931.9683
mag
3.8
name
31 Cyg
spect
K2II+...
var amplitude
0.12
var designation
V695
var max
3.788
var min
3.908

About 31 Cyg

31 Cyg is a rare variable star. It lies about 883.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cyg, shines at apparent magnitude 3.8 and has spectral type K2II+....

Its spectrum reads K2II+... — 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 31 Cyg in the constellation Cyg. At apparent magnitude 3.8, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 31 Cyg 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 31 Cyg is a rare variable star

31 Cyg scores 45 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Orange K-type star, Bright giant, Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2), 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.