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Common variable star 15 EP

HR 1817

RA 81.7698° · Dec -11.9010° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
15 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Variable star +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 15

7 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F7V: — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.
  • 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. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 6.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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
4.14
bv
0.553
constellation
Lep
dist ly
88.1978
luminosity
1.9231
mag
6.3
name
HR 1817
spect
F7V:
var amplitude
0.05
var designation
AF
var max
6.269
var min
6.319

About HR 1817

HR 1817 is a common variable star. It lies about 88.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Lep, shines at apparent magnitude 6.3 and has spectral type F7V:.

Its spectrum reads F7V: — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HR 1817 in the constellation Lep. At apparent magnitude 6.3, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 1817 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 1817 is a common variable star

HR 1817 scores 15 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Yellow-white F-type star, Main-sequence 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.