Epic variable star 56 EP

HD 33404

RA 77.4511° · Dec -5.5153° · star

Loading sky survey…

🌌 View in 3D star map

Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 6 badges

56 pts · Epic

Epic 78 pts → Anomaly

Carbon star (sooty red) +24
Bright giant +12
Deep red star +8
Variable star +5
Gently variable +4
A named variable star +3

Total score 56

22 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

Variable star · +5
Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
Bright giant · +12
Deep red star · +8
Gently variable · +4
A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 3.9 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.

What it actually is

Spectral class. Its spectrum reads C5II — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
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.

Find it in the sky

How to spot it. At magnitude 8.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Eridanus.
Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around December — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out deep orange-red (B−V 2.6) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.

Properties

absmag: -11.65
bv: 2.579
constellation: Eri
luminosity: 3981071.7055
mag: 8.35
name: HD 33404
spect: C5II
var amplitude: 0.24
var designation: SY
var max: 8.157
var min: 8.397

Nearby objects

About HD 33404

HD 33404 is an epic variable star. It sits in the constellation Eri, shines at apparent magnitude 8.35 and has spectral type C5II.

Its spectrum reads C5II — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.

How to see it

Look for HD 33404 in the constellation Eri. At apparent magnitude 8.35, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 33404 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 33404 is an epic variable star

HD 33404 scores 56 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 22 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Carbon star (sooty red), Bright giant, Deep red 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.