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Uncommon variable star 29 EP

HD 43769

RA 93.5049° · Dec -61.4732° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
29 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 29

5 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F5V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • 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 9.5 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Pictor.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • 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
0.302
bv
0.33
constellation
Pic
dist ly
2233.9452
luminosity
65.9478
mag
9.48
name
HD 43769
spect
F5V
var amplitude
0.52
var designation
ST
var max
9.235
var min
9.755

About HD 43769

HD 43769 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 2,233.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pic, shines at apparent magnitude 9.48 and has spectral type F5V.

Its spectrum reads F5V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 43769 in the constellation Pic. At apparent magnitude 9.48, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 43769 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 43769 is an uncommon variable star

HD 43769 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 6 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Yellow-white F-type star, Main-sequence star, Strongly 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.