Rare variable star 41 EP

HD 236871

RA 26.7500° · Dec 60.3723° · star

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Score breakdown

· 8 badges

41 pts · Rare

Rare 50 pts → Epic

Deep red star +8
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
Giant star +6
Variable star +5
Cool red M-type star +5
Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
Gently variable +4
A named variable star +3

Total score 41

9 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

Variable star · +5
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
Cool red M-type star · +5
Giant star · +6
Deep red star · +8
Gently variable · +4
A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M2III — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
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 8.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Cassiopeia.
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.

Properties

absmag: -1.274
bv: 2.266
constellation: Cas
dist ly: 2912.107
luminosity: 281.5788
mag: 8.48
name: HD 236871
spect: M2III
var amplitude: 0.32
var designation: V774
var max: 8.368
var min: 8.688

Nearby objects

About HD 236871

HD 236871 is a rare variable star. It lies about 2,912.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 8.48 and has spectral type M2III.

Its spectrum reads M2III — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

How to see it

Look for HD 236871 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 8.48, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 236871 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 236871 is a rare variable star

HD 236871 scores 41 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Never sets (northern circumpolar), Cool red M-type star, Giant star, Deep red 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.