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Rare variable star 37 EP

HD 252248

RA 92.1140° · Dec 13.9309° · star

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Score breakdown

· 8 badges
37 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • In Orion's hunting ground +6
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 37

13 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • In Orion's hunting ground · +6
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Blue-white star · +5
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B2V — 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 8.8 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Orion.
  • 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Properties

absmag
-0.251
bv
-0.052
constellation
Ori
dist ly
2077.4268
luminosity
109.7489
mag
8.77
name
HD 252248
spect
B2V
var amplitude
0.08
var designation
V917
var max
8.727
var min
8.807

About HD 252248

HD 252248 is a rare variable star. It lies about 2,077.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 8.77 and has spectral type B2V.

Its spectrum reads B2V — 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 252248 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 8.77, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 252248 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 252248 is a rare variable star

HD 252248 scores 37 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), In Orion's hunting ground, Hot blue B-type star, Main-sequence star, Blue-white 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.