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Common variable star 21 EP

HR 239

RA 12.5157° · Dec -43.3949° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
21 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 21

1 more point to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Giant star · +6
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A9/F0III — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • 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 6.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Phoenix.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around October — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 6.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.311
bv
0.286
constellation
Phe
dist ly
354.1324
luminosity
26.0375
mag
6.49
name
HR 239
spect
A9/F0III
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
AZ
var max
6.472
var min
6.502

About HR 239

HR 239 is a common variable star. It lies about 354.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Phe, shines at apparent magnitude 6.49 and has spectral type A9/F0III.

Its spectrum reads A9/F0III — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HR 239 in the constellation Phe. At apparent magnitude 6.49, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 239 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 HR 239 is a common variable star

HR 239 scores 21 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, White A-type star, Giant star, Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) 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.