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Uncommon variable star 31 EP

HIP 114160

RA 346.7920° · Dec 58.5542° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
31 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Strongly variable +10
  • 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 31

3 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

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

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F9 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived 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 9.8 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Cassiopeia.
  • 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.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 26.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.422
bv
1.118
constellation
Cas
dist ly
1524.0934
luminosity
23.5072
mag
9.77
name
HIP 114160
spect
F9
var amplitude
0.65
var designation
SW
var max
9.339
var min
9.989

About HIP 114160

HIP 114160 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 1,524.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 9.77 and has spectral type F9.

Its spectrum reads F9 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HIP 114160 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 9.77, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 114160 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 114160 is an uncommon variable star

HIP 114160 scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Never sets (northern circumpolar), Yellow-white F-type 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.