Rare variable star 42 EP

HD 43837

RA 94.8203° · Dec 20.5799° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges

42 pts · Rare

Rare 50 pts → Epic

Supergiant +18
In Orion's hunting ground +6
Hot blue B-type star +6
Variable star +5
Gently variable +4
A named variable star +3

Total score 42

8 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

Variable star · +5
In Orion's hunting ground · +6
Hot blue B-type star · +6
Supergiant · +18
Gently variable · +4
A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 3.6 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 B2Ibp: — 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 a supergiant, hundreds of times wider 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.

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 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.

Its true colour

Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out yellow (B−V 0.6) — almost exactly the Sun's own shade — a stellar twin in colour, if not in size.

Properties

absmag: -11.55
bv: 0.594
constellation: Ori
luminosity: 3630780.5477
mag: 8.45
name: HD 43837
spect: B2Ibp:
var amplitude: 0.09
var designation: V963
var max: 8.405
var min: 8.495

Nearby objects

About HD 43837

HD 43837 is a rare variable star. It sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 8.45 and has spectral type B2Ibp:.

Its spectrum reads B2Ibp: — 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 43837 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 8.45, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 43837 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 43837 is a rare variable star

HD 43837 scores 42 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, In Orion's hunting ground, Hot blue B-type star, Supergiant, 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.