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Uncommon variable star 30 EP

HD 1486

RA 4.8280° · Dec 59.1390° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
30 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • A named variable star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 30

4 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B9V — 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 on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.
  • 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 7.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
1.264
bv
0.049
constellation
Cas
dist ly
516.0695
luminosity
27.1894
mag
7.26
name
HD 1486
spect
B9V
var amplitude
0.89
var designation
TV
var max
7.213
var min
8.103

About HD 1486

HD 1486 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 516.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 7.26 and has spectral type B9V.

Its spectrum reads B9V — 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 HD 1486 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 7.26, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 1486 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 HD 1486 is an uncommon variable star

HD 1486 scores 30 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 4 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, Main-sequence 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.