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Epic variable star 65 EP

HR 8383

RA 329.1631° · Dec 63.6256° · star

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Score breakdown

· 10 badges
65 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Red dwarf +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +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
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Red dwarf · +6
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M2 comp — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
  • 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 5.1 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 43.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-4.271
bv
1.547
constellation
Cep
dist ly
2452.3008
luminosity
4450.4098
mag
5.11
name
HR 8383
spect
M2 comp
var amplitude
0.5
var designation
VV
var max
4.909
var min
5.409

About HR 8383

HR 8383 is an epic variable star. It lies about 2,452.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cep, shines at apparent magnitude 5.11 and has spectral type M2 comp.

Its spectrum reads M2 comp — 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 8383 in the constellation Cep. At apparent magnitude 5.11, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 8383 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 8383 is an epic variable star

HR 8383 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, Deep red star, Red dwarf and Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) — 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.