Uncommon variable star 28 EP

HIP 114815

RA 348.8663° · Dec 62.0790° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges

28 pts · Uncommon

Uncommon 34 pts → Rare

Hot blue B-type star +6
Giant star +6
Variable star +5
Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
Gently variable +4
A named variable star +3

Total score 28

6 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

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

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 1.2 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 B0III:p: — 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 giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.
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 9.7 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Cassiopeia.
Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around September — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out yellow (B−V 0.8) — almost exactly the Sun's own shade — a stellar twin in colour, if not in size.

Properties

absmag: -10.34
bv: 0.802
constellation: Cas
luminosity: 1191242.008
mag: 9.66
name: HIP 114815
spect: B0III:p:
var amplitude: 0.18
var designation: V808
var max: 9.579
var min: 9.759

Nearby objects

About HIP 114815

HIP 114815 is an uncommon variable star. It sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 9.66 and has spectral type B0III:p:.

Its spectrum reads B0III:p: — 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 114815 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 9.66, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 114815 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 114815 is an uncommon variable star

HIP 114815 scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 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, Giant star, 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.