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Rare variable star 49 EP

HIP 15530

RA 50.0250° · Dec 32.0217° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
49 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Bright giant +12
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 49

1 more point to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M5II-IIIvar — 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 bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.
  • 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 8.9 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Properties

absmag
0.264
bv
2.014
constellation
Per
dist ly
1716.6106
luminosity
68.2967
mag
8.87
name
HIP 15530
spect
M5II-IIIvar
var amplitude
0.91
var designation
UZ
var max
8.401
var min
9.311

About HIP 15530

HIP 15530 is a rare variable star. It lies about 1,716.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Per, shines at apparent magnitude 8.87 and has spectral type M5II-IIIvar.

Its spectrum reads M5II-IIIvar — 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 HIP 15530 in the constellation Per. At apparent magnitude 8.87, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 15530 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 15530 is a rare variable star

HIP 15530 scores 49 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Cool red M-type star, Bright giant, Deep red 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.