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Rare variable star 37 EP

14 Lac

RA 342.5907° · Dec 41.9534° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
37 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 37

13 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B3IV:var — 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 subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.
  • 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 5.9 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Lacerta.
  • 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 September — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

absmag
-1.801
bv
0.062
constellation
Lac
dist ly
1136.4322
luminosity
457.5094
mag
5.91
name
14 Lac
spect
B3IV:var
var amplitude
0.07
var designation
V360
var max
5.881
var min
5.951

About 14 Lac

14 Lac is a rare variable star. It lies about 1,136.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Lac, shines at apparent magnitude 5.91 and has spectral type B3IV:var.

Its spectrum reads B3IV:var — 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 14 Lac in the constellation Lac. At apparent magnitude 5.91, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 14 Lac 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 14 Lac is a rare variable star

14 Lac scores 37 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Naked-eye visible, Hot blue B-type star, Subgiant (leaving the main sequence), 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.