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Common variable star 15 EP

HD 41683

RA 91.3528° · Dec -28.6774° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
15 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 15

7 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F5/8 + A/F — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • 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 7.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Columba.
  • 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. ≈ 5.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.529
bv
0.451
constellation
Col
dist ly
333.834
luminosity
8.4801
mag
7.58
name
HD 41683
spect
F5/8 + A/F
var amplitude
0.18
var designation
AD
var max
7.552
var min
7.732

About HD 41683

HD 41683 is a common variable star. It lies about 333.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Col, shines at apparent magnitude 7.58 and has spectral type F5/8 + A/F.

Its spectrum reads F5/8 + A/F — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 41683 in the constellation Col. At apparent magnitude 7.58, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 41683 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 41683 is a common variable star

HD 41683 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 4 science badges — Variable star, Yellow-white F-type 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.