Uncommon variable star 31 EP

HIP 14542

RA 46.9406° · Dec 67.5774° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges

31 pts · Uncommon

Uncommon 34 pts → Rare

Strongly variable +10
Giant star +6
Variable star +5
Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
Orange K-type star +3
A named variable star +3

Total score 31

3 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

Variable star · +5
Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
Orange K-type star · +3
Giant star · +6
Strongly variable · +10
A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 2.3 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 K1III+A5IIIe — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
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.

Find it in the sky

How to spot it. At magnitude 8.9 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 November — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out orange (B−V 1.1) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.

Properties

absmag: -11.09
bv: 1.141
constellation: Cas
luminosity: 2376840.2866
mag: 8.91
name: HIP 14542
spect: K1III+A5IIIe
var amplitude: 0.57
var designation: RX
var max: 8.751
var min: 9.321

Nearby objects

About HIP 14542

HIP 14542 is an uncommon variable star. It sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 8.91 and has spectral type K1III+A5IIIe.

Its spectrum reads K1III+A5IIIe — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HIP 14542 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 8.91, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 14542 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 HIP 14542 is an uncommon variable star

HIP 14542 scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Orange K-type star, Giant 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.