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Epic variable star 50 EP

HIP 22796

RA 73.5625° · Dec 49.9001° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
50 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Carbon star (sooty red) +24
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Deep red star +8
  • Variable star +5
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 50

28 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads Ce+... — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
  • 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 11.5 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Auriga.
  • 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 December — 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. ≈ 11 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
5.05
bv
2.57
constellation
Aur
dist ly
627.2231
luminosity
0.8318
mag
11.47
name
HIP 22796
spect
Ce+...
var amplitude
1.47
var designation
AU
var max
10.535
var min
12.005

About HIP 22796

HIP 22796 is an epic variable star. It lies about 627.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aur, shines at apparent magnitude 11.47 and has spectral type Ce+....

Its spectrum reads Ce+... — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.

How to see it

Look for HIP 22796 in the constellation Aur. At apparent magnitude 11.47, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 22796 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 22796 is an epic variable star

HIP 22796 scores 50 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 28 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Carbon star (sooty red), 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.