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Uncommon variable star 23 EP

HD 37318

RA 84.7417° · Dec 28.4601° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
23 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 23

11 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 3.8 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 B1Vne — 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.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 8.4 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Taurus.
  • 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out yellow-white (B−V 0.3) — a shade brighter and crisper than our own Sun.

Properties

absmag
-11.61
bv
0.35
constellation
Tau
luminosity
3837072.4549
mag
8.39
name
HD 37318
spect
B1Vne
var amplitude
0.12
var designation
V1163
var max
8.331
var min
8.451

About HD 37318

HD 37318 is an uncommon variable star. It sits in the constellation Tau, shines at apparent magnitude 8.39 and has spectral type B1Vne.

Its spectrum reads B1Vne — 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 37318 in the constellation Tau. At apparent magnitude 8.39, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 37318 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 37318 is an uncommon variable star

HD 37318 scores 23 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, On the zodiac, Hot blue B-type star, Main-sequence 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.