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Common variable star 18 EP

HD 10502

RA 25.6493° · Dec 10.2446° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
18 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 18

4 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

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

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A2 — 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 7.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Pisces.
  • 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.

Could we get there?

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

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 6.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.083
bv
0.284
constellation
Psc
dist ly
358.8075
luminosity
12.7879
mag
7.29
name
HD 10502
spect
A2
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
HU
var max
7.272
var min
7.302

About HD 10502

HD 10502 is a common variable star. It lies about 358.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Psc, shines at apparent magnitude 7.29 and has spectral type A2.

Its spectrum reads A2 — 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 HD 10502 in the constellation Psc. At apparent magnitude 7.29, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 10502 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 10502 is a common variable star

HD 10502 scores 18 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, On the zodiac, White A-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.