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Uncommon variable star 23 EP

HD 206821

RA 325.3395° · Dec 69.6928° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
23 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 23

11 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A1V — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.
  • 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 7.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Cepheus.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • 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.

Properties

absmag
1.835
bv
0.069
constellation
Cep
dist ly
527.7605
luminosity
16.0694
mag
7.88
name
HD 206821
spect
A1V
var amplitude
0.13
var designation
EK
var max
7.865
var min
7.995

About HD 206821

HD 206821 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 527.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cep, shines at apparent magnitude 7.88 and has spectral type A1V.

Its spectrum reads A1V — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HD 206821 in the constellation Cep. At apparent magnitude 7.88, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 206821 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 206821 is an uncommon variable star

HD 206821 scores 23 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), White A-type star, Main-sequence 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.