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Rare variable star 44 EP

HD 16326

RA 39.5991° · Dec 39.1694° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
44 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Carbon star (sooty red) +24
  • Deep red star +8
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 44

6 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 847.2 thousand 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 C54(N3) — 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.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 10 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Andromeda.
  • 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 deep orange-red (B−V 2.1) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.

By the numbers

  • Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 3070 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

Properties

absmag
-9.99
bv
2.1
constellation
And
luminosity
862978.5478
mag
10.01
name
HD 16326
spect
C54(N3)
var amplitude
0.27
var designation
UY
var max
9.939
var min
10.209

About HD 16326

HD 16326 is a rare variable star. It sits in the constellation And, shines at apparent magnitude 10.01 and has spectral type C54(N3).

Its spectrum reads C54(N3) — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.

How to see it

Look for HD 16326 in the constellation And. At apparent magnitude 10.01, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 16326 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 16326 is a rare variable star

HD 16326 scores 44 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

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