← Back to dex
Uncommon variable star 33 EP

56 Tau

RA 64.9029° · Dec 21.7735° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 7 badges
33 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 33

1 more point to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Blue-white star · +5
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A0p Si — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • 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 5.3 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Taurus.
  • 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 5.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.34
bv
-0.107
constellation
Tau
dist ly
326.156
luminosity
63.6796
mag
5.34
name
56 Tau
spect
A0p Si
var amplitude
0.06
var designation
V724
var max
5.322
var min
5.382

About 56 Tau

56 Tau is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 326.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tau, shines at apparent magnitude 5.34 and has spectral type A0p Si.

Its spectrum reads A0p Si — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for 56 Tau in the constellation Tau. At apparent magnitude 5.34, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 56 Tau 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 56 Tau is an uncommon variable star

56 Tau scores 33 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, On the zodiac, White A-type star, Blue-white star, Gently 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.