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Epic variable star 65 EP

Enif

RA 326.0465° · Dec 9.8750° · star

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Score breakdown

· 9 badges
65 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Supergiant +18
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Deep red star +8
  • Variable star +5
  • Orange K-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 65

13 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K2Ibvar — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is a supergiant, hundreds of times wider 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 2.4 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Pegasus.
  • 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.

Properties

absmag
-4.246
bv
1.52
constellation
Peg
dist ly
689.5476
luminosity
4349.1061
mag
2.38
name
Enif
named
yes
spect
K2Ibvar
var amplitude
0.04
var designation
Eps
var max
2.364
var min
2.404

About Enif

Enif is an epic variable star. It lies about 689.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Peg, shines at apparent magnitude 2.38 and has spectral type K2Ibvar.

Its spectrum reads K2Ibvar — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for Enif in the constellation Peg. At apparent magnitude 2.38, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Enif 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 Enif is an epic variable star

Enif 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 9 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Has a proper name, Orange K-type star, Supergiant, Deep red star, Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) and Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) — 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.