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Epic variable star 50 EP

Tejat

RA 95.7401° · Dec 22.5136° · star

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Score breakdown

· 9 badges
50 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Deep red star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 50

28 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Giant star · +6
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M3IIIvar — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
  • Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.
  • 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 2.9 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Gemini.
  • 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
-1.387
bv
1.621
constellation
Gem
dist ly
231.6448
luminosity
312.464
mag
2.87
name
Tejat
named
yes
spect
M3IIIvar
var amplitude
0.12
var designation
Mu
var max
2.826
var min
2.946

About Tejat

Tejat is an epic variable star. It lies about 231.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Gem, shines at apparent magnitude 2.87 and has spectral type M3IIIvar.

Its spectrum reads M3IIIvar — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

How to see it

Look for Tejat in the constellation Gem. At apparent magnitude 2.87, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Tejat 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 Tejat is an epic variable star

Tejat scores 50 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 28 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 9 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Has a proper name, On the zodiac, Cool red M-type star, Giant star, Deep red star and Gently variable — 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.