← Back to dex
Common variable star 18 EP

HIP 100289

RA 305.1177° · Dec 41.3643° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 4 badges
18 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 18

4 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B2e — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
  • 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 10.6 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 4.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
6.128
bv
0.76
constellation
Cyg
dist ly
259.2656
luminosity
0.3082
mag
10.63
name
HIP 100289
spect
B2e
var amplitude
0.26
var designation
V1685
var max
10.482
var min
10.742

About HIP 100289

HIP 100289 is a common variable star. It lies about 259.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cyg, shines at apparent magnitude 10.63 and has spectral type B2e.

Its spectrum reads B2e — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HIP 100289 in the constellation Cyg. At apparent magnitude 10.63, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 100289 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 HIP 100289 is a common variable star

HIP 100289 scores 18 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Variable star, Hot blue B-type star, 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.