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Epic variable star 57 EP

HIP 108427

RA 329.4696° · Dec 56.1639° · star

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Score breakdown

· 8 badges
57 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Supergiant +18
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 57

21 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F5Ib-F7 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • 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 10.7 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Cepheus.
  • 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Properties

absmag
2.582
bv
1.76
constellation
Cep
dist ly
1364.6693
luminosity
8.0761
mag
10.69
name
HIP 108427
spect
F5Ib-F7
var amplitude
0.77
var designation
CP
var max
10.183
var min
10.953

About HIP 108427

HIP 108427 is an epic variable star. It lies about 1,364.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cep, shines at apparent magnitude 10.69 and has spectral type F5Ib-F7.

Its spectrum reads F5Ib-F7 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HIP 108427 in the constellation Cep. At apparent magnitude 10.69, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 108427 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 HIP 108427 is an epic variable star

HIP 108427 scores 57 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 21 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Never sets (northern circumpolar), Yellow-white F-type star, Supergiant, Deep red star, Strongly 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.