Uncommon variable star 29 EP

HD 195237

RA 307.5770° · Dec -4.7546° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges

29 pts · Uncommon

Uncommon 34 pts → Rare

Strongly variable +10
Red dwarf +6
Variable star +5
Cool red M-type star +5
A named variable star +3

Total score 29

5 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

Variable star · +5
Cool red M-type star · +5
Red dwarf · +6
Strongly variable · +10
A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 3.1 million 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 M6 — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
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 8.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Aquila.
Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
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 orange (B−V 1.4) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.

By the numbers

Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 4010 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

Properties

absmag: -11.39
bv: 1.363
constellation: Aql
luminosity: 3133285.7243
mag: 8.61
name: HD 195237
spect: M6
var amplitude: 0.64
var designation: TZ
var max: 8.273
var min: 8.913

Nearby objects

About HD 195237

HD 195237 is an uncommon variable star. It sits in the constellation Aql, shines at apparent magnitude 8.61 and has spectral type M6.

Its spectrum reads M6 — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

How to see it

Look for HD 195237 in the constellation Aql. At apparent magnitude 8.61, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 195237 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 195237 is an uncommon variable star

HD 195237 scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Cool red M-type star, Red dwarf, 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.