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Uncommon variable star 28 EP

HD 4499

RA 12.5194° · Dec 81.9672° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
28 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • 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
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 28

6 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G5 — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own 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 7.4 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Cepheus.
  • 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 October — 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. ≈ 37 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.668
bv
1.084
constellation
Cep
dist ly
2104.2323
luminosity
404.7622
mag
7.38
name
HD 4499
spect
G5
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
RX
var max
7.363
var min
7.393

About HD 4499

HD 4499 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 2,104.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cep, shines at apparent magnitude 7.38 and has spectral type G5.

Its spectrum reads G5 — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 4499 in the constellation Cep. At apparent magnitude 7.38, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 4499 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 4499 is an uncommon variable star

HD 4499 scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 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), Sun-like G-type 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.