← Back to dex
Common variable star 15 EP

HR 8408

RA 331.1532° · Dec -26.8224° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 2 badges
15 pts · Common
Common 24 pts → Uncommon
  • Distant (>1000 ly) +10
  • Variable star +5
Total score 15

9 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (>1000 ly) · +10

Trivia

Could we get there?

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

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 21.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 1.9 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
  • At 10% light speed. ≈ 12.3 thousand years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
  • Distance. 1231 light-years from Earth.

Look-back time

  • Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 795.

Saying hello

  • Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 2462 years round-trip.

Properties

absmag
-1.914
bv
-0.167
constellation
PsA
dist ly
1230.7774
mag
5.97
name
HR 8408
spect
B3V (+B)

About HR 8408

HR 8408 is a common variable star. It lies about 1,230.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation PsA, shines at apparent magnitude 5.97 and has spectral type B3V (+B).

HR 8408 is a common variable star worth 15 points across 2 science badges. Explore its facts, badges and place on the sky map, then add it to your dex on Spacedle.

How to see it

Look for HR 8408 in the constellation PsA. At apparent magnitude 5.97, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 8408 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 8408 is a common variable star

HR 8408 scores 15 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 2 science badges — Variable star and Distant (>1000 ly) — 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.

spacedle A daily roll through the real universe. © 2026 spacedle. Buy me a coffee

Sky imagery and survey data courtesy of Aladin Lite & CDS, Strasbourg. Object data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive, JPL Small-Body Database, and the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue.