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Uncommon variable star 31 EP

HIP 1213

RA 3.7909° · Dec 58.4243° · 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 F7 — 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 9.9 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. ≈ 21.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.059
bv
0.807
constellation
Cas
dist ly
1212.4758
luminosity
13.0737
mag
9.91
name
HIP 1213
spect
F7
var amplitude
0.82
var designation
SY
var max
9.379
var min
10.199

About HIP 1213

HIP 1213 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 1,212.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 9.91 and has spectral type F7.

Its spectrum reads F7 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HIP 1213 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 9.91, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 1213 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 1213 is an uncommon variable star

HIP 1213 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.