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Epic variable star 50 EP

HD 193368

RA 304.6386° · Dec 37.4497° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
50 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Carbon star (sooty red) +24
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Deep red star +8
  • Variable star +5
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 50

28 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 737.9 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 C8e: — 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.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 10.2 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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 deep orange-red (B−V 3) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.

By the numbers

  • Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 2390 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

Properties

absmag
-9.84
bv
3
constellation
Cyg
luminosity
751622.894
mag
10.16
name
HD 193368
spect
C8e:
var amplitude
1.52
var designation
WX
var max
9.742
var min
11.262

About HD 193368

HD 193368 is an epic variable star. It sits in the constellation Cyg, shines at apparent magnitude 10.16 and has spectral type C8e:.

Its spectrum reads C8e: — 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 193368 in the constellation Cyg. At apparent magnitude 10.16, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 193368 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 193368 is an epic variable star

HD 193368 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 5 science badges — Variable star, Carbon star (sooty red), Deep red star, Strongly 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.