Uncommon variable star 26 EP

HD 17034

RA 41.4255° · Dec 48.1439° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges

26 pts · Uncommon

Uncommon 34 pts → Rare

Strongly variable +10
Hot blue B-type star +6
Variable star +5
A named variable star +3
Main-sequence star +2

Total score 26

8 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

Variable star · +5
Hot blue B-type star · +6
Main-sequence star · +2
Strongly variable · +10
A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 3.3 million 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 B4V — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.
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 8.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Perseus.
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 November — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out brilliant white (B−V 0.1) — hotter and whiter than the Sun, the colour of Sirius or Vega.

Properties

absmag: -11.45
bv: 0.114
constellation: Per
luminosity: 3311311.2148
mag: 8.55
name: HD 17034
spect: B4V
var amplitude: 1.55
var designation: RY
var max: 8.469
var min: 10.019

Nearby objects

About HD 17034

HD 17034 is an uncommon variable star. It sits in the constellation Per, shines at apparent magnitude 8.55 and has spectral type B4V.

Its spectrum reads B4V — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 17034 in the constellation Per. At apparent magnitude 8.55, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 17034 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 17034 is an uncommon variable star

HD 17034 scores 26 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Hot blue B-type star, Main-sequence 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.