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Epic variable star 65 EP

HD 23548

RA 56.0777° · Dec -41.8977° · star

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Score breakdown

· 8 badges
65 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Supergiant +18
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • 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 65

13 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M1Ib/II — 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 supergiant, hundreds of times wider than the Sun.
  • 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 7.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Eridanus.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south 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
-2.198
bv
1.733
constellation
Eri
dist ly
2811.6898
luminosity
659.4775
mag
7.48
name
HD 23548
spect
M1Ib/II
var amplitude
0.66
var designation
EU
var max
7.357
var min
8.017

About HD 23548

HD 23548 is an epic variable star. It lies about 2,811.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Eri, shines at apparent magnitude 7.48 and has spectral type M1Ib/II.

Its spectrum reads M1Ib/II — 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 23548 in the constellation Eri. At apparent magnitude 7.48, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 23548 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 23548 is an epic variable star

HD 23548 scores 65 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Cool red M-type star, Supergiant, Deep red star, Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2), 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.