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Common variable star 20 EP

HD 194492

RA 307.9476° · Dec -73.0717° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
20 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Variable star +5
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 20

2 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F0IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.
  • 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 8.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Pavo.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • 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
2.24
bv
0.364
constellation
Pav
dist ly
716.8263
luminosity
11.0662
mag
8.95
name
HD 194492
spect
F0IV
var amplitude
0.23
var designation
V382
var max
8.817
var min
9.047

Nearby objects

About HD 194492

HD 194492 is a common variable star. It lies about 716.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pav, shines at apparent magnitude 8.95 and has spectral type F0IV.

Its spectrum reads F0IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 194492 in the constellation Pav. At apparent magnitude 8.95, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 194492 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 194492 is a common variable star

HD 194492 scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Yellow-white F-type star, Subgiant (leaving the main sequence), 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.