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Epic variable star 52 EP

HIP 101341

RA 308.0934° · Dec 41.3053° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
52 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Blazing O-type star +26
  • Deep red star +8
  • 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
  • Blazing O-type star · +26
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads O7e — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.
  • 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 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. ≈ 37.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.101
bv
1.408
constellation
Cyg
dist ly
2145.763
luminosity
95.5873
mag
8.99
name
HIP 101341
spect
O7e
var amplitude
0.27
var designation
V729
var max
8.878
var min
9.148

About HIP 101341

HIP 101341 is an epic variable star. It lies about 2,145.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cyg, shines at apparent magnitude 8.99 and has spectral type O7e.

Its spectrum reads O7e — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.

How to see it

Look for HIP 101341 in the constellation Cyg. At apparent magnitude 8.99, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 101341 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 101341 is an epic variable star

HIP 101341 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 6 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Blazing O-type star, Deep red 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.