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Rare variable star 37 EP

HR 1693

RA 77.8453° · Dec -11.8491° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
37 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 37

13 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Giant star · +6
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M6.2III — 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 5.6 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Lepus.
  • 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 December — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
-0.266
bv
1.35
constellation
Lep
dist ly
486.0745
luminosity
111.2756
mag
5.6
name
HR 1693
spect
M6.2III
var amplitude
0.59
var designation
RX
var max
5.293
var min
5.883

About HR 1693

HR 1693 is a rare variable star. It lies about 486.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Lep, shines at apparent magnitude 5.6 and has spectral type M6.2III.

Its spectrum reads M6.2III — 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 HR 1693 in the constellation Lep. At apparent magnitude 5.6, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 1693 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 HR 1693 is a rare variable star

HR 1693 scores 37 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Cool red M-type star, Giant 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.