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Epic variable star 62 EP

HR 2308

RA 96.3674° · Dec 14.7220° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
62 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Carbon star (sooty red) +24
  • Bright giant +12
  • Deep red star +8
  • In Orion's hunting ground +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 62

16 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • In Orion's hunting ground · +6
  • Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads C5II — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
  • Where it is in life. It is a bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.
  • 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 6.3 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 deep orange-red (B−V 2.3) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.

By the numbers

  • Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 2850 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

Properties

absmag
-13.7
bv
2.349
constellation
Ori
luminosity
26302679.919
mag
6.3
name
HR 2308
spect
C5II
var amplitude
0.29
var designation
BL
var max
6.124
var min
6.414

About HR 2308

HR 2308 is an epic variable star. It sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 6.3 and has spectral type C5II.

Its spectrum reads C5II — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.

How to see it

Look for HR 2308 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 6.3, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 2308 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 HR 2308 is an epic variable star

HR 2308 scores 62 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 16 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, In Orion's hunting ground, Carbon star (sooty red), Bright giant, Deep red 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.