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Uncommon variable star 29 EP

HD 36668

RA 83.3586° · Dec 0.6214° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
29 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • In Orion's hunting ground +6
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 29

5 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • In Orion's hunting ground · +6
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Blue-white star · +5
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B6Vwp... — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
  • 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. 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 8.1 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Orion.
  • 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.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

absmag
1.091
bv
-0.109
constellation
Ori
dist ly
811.3333
luminosity
31.886
mag
8.07
name
HD 36668
spect
B6Vwp...
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
V1107
var max
8.059
var min
8.089

About HD 36668

HD 36668 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 811.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 8.07 and has spectral type B6Vwp....

Its spectrum reads B6Vwp... — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 36668 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 8.07, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 36668 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 36668 is an uncommon variable star

HD 36668 scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, In Orion's hunting ground, Hot blue B-type star, Main-sequence star, Blue-white 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.