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Epic variable star 54 EP

HD 236429

RA 7.4941° · Dec 60.2120° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
54 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Supergiant +18
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 54

24 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G1Ibvar — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a supergiant, hundreds of times wider 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 8.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Cassiopeia.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • 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.

Properties

absmag
0.572
bv
1.096
constellation
Cas
dist ly
1482.5274
luminosity
51.428
mag
8.86
name
HD 236429
spect
G1Ibvar
var amplitude
0.52
var designation
DL
var max
8.701
var min
9.221

About HD 236429

HD 236429 is an epic variable star. It lies about 1,482.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 8.86 and has spectral type G1Ibvar.

Its spectrum reads G1Ibvar — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 236429 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 8.86, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 236429 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 236429 is an epic variable star

HD 236429 scores 54 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 24 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Never sets (northern circumpolar), Sun-like G-type star, Supergiant, 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.