Common variable star 19 EP

HD 5440

RA 14.2419° · Dec 56.2400° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges

19 pts · Common

Common 22 pts → Uncommon

Variable star +5
Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
Gently variable +4
Orange K-type star +3
A named variable star +3

Total score 19

3 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

Variable star · +5
Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
Orange K-type star · +3
Gently variable · +4
A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 3.5 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 K2 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
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.

Find it in the sky

How to spot it. At magnitude 8.5 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 October — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out orange (B−V 1.3) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.

By the numbers

Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 4120 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

Properties

absmag: -11.54
bv: 1.299
constellation: Cas
luminosity: 3597493.3516
mag: 8.46
name: HD 5440
spect: K2
var amplitude: 0.12
var designation: V758
var max: 8.405
var min: 8.525

Nearby objects

About HD 5440

HD 5440 is a common variable star. It sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 8.46 and has spectral type K2.

Its spectrum reads K2 — 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 5440 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 8.46, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 5440 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 5440 is a common variable star

HD 5440 scores 19 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Orange K-type star, Gently 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.