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Rare variable star 36 EP

HD 5679

RA 15.5765° · Dec 81.8756° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
36 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 36

14 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Giant star · +6
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G8III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.
  • 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 6.9 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
-0.117
bv
0.01
constellation
Cep
dist ly
825.7115
luminosity
97.0063
mag
6.9
name
HD 5679
spect
G8III
var amplitude
0.85
var designation
U
var max
6.852
var min
7.702

About HD 5679

HD 5679 is a rare variable star. It lies about 825.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cep, shines at apparent magnitude 6.9 and has spectral type G8III.

Its spectrum reads G8III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 5679 in the constellation Cep. At apparent magnitude 6.9, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 5679 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 5679 is a rare variable star

HD 5679 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 6 science badges — Variable star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Sun-like G-type star, Giant star, 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.