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Common variable star 16 EP

HD 200356

RA 315.7817° · Dec -1.3086° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
16 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Variable star +5
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 16

6 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F2 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • 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 7.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Aquarius.
  • 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 August — 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. ≈ 12.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.577
bv
0.401
constellation
Aqr
dist ly
734.5855
luminosity
51.1918
mag
7.34
name
HD 200356
spect
F2
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
FN
var max
7.324
var min
7.354

About HD 200356

HD 200356 is a common variable star. It lies about 734.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aqr, shines at apparent magnitude 7.34 and has spectral type F2.

Its spectrum reads F2 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 200356 in the constellation Aqr. At apparent magnitude 7.34, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 200356 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 200356 is a common variable star

HD 200356 scores 16 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, On the zodiac, Yellow-white F-type star, Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) 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.