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Rare variable star 45 EP

Zaurak

RA 59.5074° · Dec -13.5085° · star

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Score breakdown

· 8 badges
45 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Deep red star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 45

5 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Giant star · +6
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M1IIIb Ca-1 — 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 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.

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 3 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
-1.004
bv
1.588
constellation
Eri
dist ly
203.339
luminosity
219.5837
mag
2.97
name
Zaurak
named
yes
spect
M1IIIb Ca-1
var amplitude
0.05
var designation
Gam
var max
2.95
var min
3

About Zaurak

Zaurak is a rare variable star. It lies about 203.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Eri, shines at apparent magnitude 2.97 and has spectral type M1IIIb Ca-1.

Its spectrum reads M1IIIb Ca-1 — 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 Zaurak in the constellation Eri. At apparent magnitude 2.97, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Zaurak 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 Zaurak is a rare variable star

Zaurak scores 45 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Has a proper name, Cool red M-type star, Giant star, Deep red star, Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) 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.