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Epic variable star 52 EP

HD 193576

RA 304.8851° · Dec 38.7317° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
52 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Wolf-Rayet star (shedding itself) +34
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 52

26 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Wolf-Rayet star (shedding itself) · +34
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads WN5 + O6 — a Wolf-Rayet star: a stellar monster shedding its own outer layers in a ferocious wind, on its way to a supernova.
  • 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 7.9 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. ≈ 36.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.091
bv
0.486
constellation
Cyg
dist ly
2077.4268
luminosity
237.903
mag
7.93
name
HD 193576
spect
WN5 + O6
var amplitude
0.3
var designation
V444
var max
7.868
var min
8.168

About HD 193576

HD 193576 is an epic variable star. It lies about 2,077.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cyg, shines at apparent magnitude 7.93 and has spectral type WN5 + O6.

Its spectrum reads WN5 + O6 — a Wolf-Rayet star: a stellar monster shedding its own outer layers in a ferocious wind, on its way to a supernova.

How to see it

Look for HD 193576 in the constellation Cyg. At apparent magnitude 7.93, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 193576 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 193576 is an epic variable star

HD 193576 scores 52 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 26 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Wolf-Rayet star (shedding itself), 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.