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Epic variable star 65 EP

HR 7944

RA 311.0919° · Dec 56.4884° · star

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Score breakdown

· 10 badges
65 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Fades out of naked-eye view +16
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 65

13 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Giant star · +6
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Gently variable · +4
  • Fades out of naked-eye view · +16
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M3III — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
  • Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.
  • 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 5.9 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Cepheus.
  • 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 August — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Properties

absmag
-1.726
bv
1.643
constellation
Cep
dist ly
1098.1682
luminosity
426.9726
mag
5.91
name
HR 7944
spect
M3III
var amplitude
0.23
var designation
V414
var max
5.801
var min
6.031

About HR 7944

HR 7944 is an epic variable star. It lies about 1,098.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cep, shines at apparent magnitude 5.91 and has spectral type M3III.

Its spectrum reads M3III — 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 HR 7944 in the constellation Cep. At apparent magnitude 5.91, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 7944 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 HR 7944 is an epic variable star

HR 7944 scores 65 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 10 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Naked-eye visible, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Cool red M-type star, Giant star, Deep red star and Gently variable — 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.