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Uncommon variable star 33 EP

17 Lep

RA 91.2464° · Dec -16.4844° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
33 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 33

1 more point to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads Ap shell — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • 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 4.9 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.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 16 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-2.305
bv
0.196
constellation
Lep
dist ly
908.5124
luminosity
727.7798
mag
4.92
name
17 Lep
spect
Ap shell
var amplitude
0.05
var designation
SS
var max
4.893
var min
4.943

About 17 Lep

17 Lep is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 908.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Lep, shines at apparent magnitude 4.92 and has spectral type Ap shell.

Its spectrum reads Ap shell — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for 17 Lep in the constellation Lep. At apparent magnitude 4.92, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 17 Lep 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 17 Lep is an uncommon variable star

17 Lep scores 33 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, White A-type star, Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2), 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.