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Epic variable star 50 EP

HR 423

RA 21.7421° · Dec -32.5432° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
50 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Carbon star (sooty red) +24
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Deep red star +8
  • Variable star +5
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 50

28 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads C — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
  • 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 6.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Sculptor.
  • 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. ≈ 15.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.554
bv
2.45
constellation
Scl
dist ly
867.436
luminosity
145.0775
mag
6.57
name
HR 423
spect
C
var amplitude
1.28
var designation
R
var max
6.119
var min
7.399

About HR 423

HR 423 is an epic variable star. It lies about 867.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Scl, shines at apparent magnitude 6.57 and has spectral type C.

Its spectrum reads C — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.

How to see it

Look for HR 423 in the constellation Scl. At apparent magnitude 6.57, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 423 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 423 is an epic variable star

HR 423 scores 50 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 28 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Carbon star (sooty red), Deep red 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.