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Uncommon variable star 26 EP

8Kap Psc

RA 351.7331° · Dec 1.2556° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
26 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 26

8 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A0p — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • 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 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Pisces.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 2.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.587
bv
0.036
constellation
Psc
dist ly
153.4851
luminosity
20.193
mag
4.95
name
8Kap Psc
spect
A0p
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
Kap
var max
4.938
var min
4.968

About 8Kap Psc

8Kap Psc is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 153.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Psc, shines at apparent magnitude 4.95 and has spectral type A0p.

Its spectrum reads A0p — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for 8Kap Psc in the constellation Psc. At apparent magnitude 4.95, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 8Kap Psc 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 8Kap Psc is an uncommon variable star

8Kap Psc scores 26 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, On the zodiac, White A-type star, Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) 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.