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Rare variable star 34 EP

HIP 109606

RA 333.0407° · Dec 53.6988° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
34 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Bright giant +12
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 34

16 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 1.3 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B3II: — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is a bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.
  • 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.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 9.6 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out yellow-white (B−V 0.3) — a shade brighter and crisper than our own Sun.

Properties

absmag
-10.42
bv
0.33
constellation
Cep
luminosity
1282330.5827
mag
9.58
name
HIP 109606
spect
B3II:
var amplitude
0.14
var designation
V448
var max
9.508
var min
9.648

About HIP 109606

HIP 109606 is a rare variable star. It sits in the constellation Cep, shines at apparent magnitude 9.58 and has spectral type B3II:.

Its spectrum reads B3II: — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HIP 109606 in the constellation Cep. At apparent magnitude 9.58, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 109606 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 109606 is a rare variable star

HIP 109606 scores 34 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 16 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Hot blue B-type star, Bright giant, 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.