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Rare variable star 34 EP

16Lam And

RA 354.3908° · Dec 46.4582° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
34 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 34

16 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Giant star · +6
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G8III-IV — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • 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.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 3.8 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Andromeda.
  • 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
1.701
bv
0.984
constellation
And
dist ly
86.1251
luminosity
18.1803
mag
3.81
name
16Lam And
spect
G8III-IV
var amplitude
0.21
var designation
Lam
var max
3.741
var min
3.951

About 16Lam And

16Lam And is a rare variable star. It lies about 86.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation And, shines at apparent magnitude 3.81 and has spectral type G8III-IV.

Its spectrum reads G8III-IV — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for 16Lam And in the constellation And. At apparent magnitude 3.81, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 16Lam And 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 16Lam And is a rare variable star

16Lam And 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, Naked-eye visible, Sun-like G-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.