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Rare star 36 EP

HD 236393

RA 5.8437° · Dec 59.5953° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
36 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Supergiant +18
  • Deep red star +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 36

14 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 4.5 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 K5Iab: — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is a supergiant. Drop it where the Sun is and its surface would engulf the inner planets.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 8.2 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out deep orange-red (B−V 1.7) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.

By the numbers

  • Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 3570 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

Properties

absmag
-11.8
bv
1.659
constellation
Cas
luminosity
4570881.8961
mag
8.2
name
HD 236393
spect
K5Iab:

About HD 236393

HD 236393 is a rare star. It sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 8.2 and has spectral type K5Iab:.

Its spectrum reads K5Iab: — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 236393 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 8.2, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 236393 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 236393 is a rare star

HD 236393 scores 36 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 14 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Orange K-type star, Supergiant and Deep red 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.