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Uncommon variable star 32 EP

65Tau Cyg

RA 318.6978° · Dec 38.0453° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
32 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Binary star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 32

2 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Binary star · +6
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Not one star but two. It is a binary: two stars orbiting a shared centre of mass. More than half of all the 'stars' you can see are actually multiple systems.

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F1IV — 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. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 3.7 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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 August — that's when to go looking.

Properties

absmag
2.198
binary
yes
bv
0.393
constellation
Cyg
dist ly
66.3457
luminosity
11.5027
mag
3.74
name
65Tau Cyg
spect
F1IV
var amplitude
0.01
var designation
Tau
var max
3.738
var min
3.748

About 65Tau Cyg

65Tau Cyg is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 66.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cyg, shines at apparent magnitude 3.74 and has spectral type F1IV.

It is a binary: two stars orbiting a shared centre of mass. More than half of all the 'stars' you can see are actually multiple systems.

How to see it

Look for 65Tau Cyg in the constellation Cyg. At apparent magnitude 3.74, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 65Tau Cyg 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 65Tau Cyg is an uncommon variable star

65Tau Cyg scores 32 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Binary star, Yellow-white F-type star, Subgiant (leaving the main sequence), 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.