Uncommon variable star 29 EP

HIP 30945

RA 97.4206° · Dec 61.5426° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges

29 pts · Uncommon

Uncommon 34 pts → Rare

Strongly variable +10
Giant star +6
Variable star +5
Cool red M-type star +5
A named variable star +3

Total score 29

5 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

Variable star · +5
Cool red M-type star · +5
Giant star · +6
Strongly variable · +10
A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 1.5 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 M5III-IVvar — 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.

Find it in the sky

How to spot it. At magnitude 9.4 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Lynx.
Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
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 orange (B−V 1.3) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.

Properties

absmag: -10.63
bv: 1.284
constellation: Lyn
luminosity: 1555965.6316
mag: 9.37
name: HIP 30945
spect: M5III-IVvar
var amplitude: 0.59
var designation: V
var max: 9.069
var min: 9.659

Nearby objects

About HIP 30945

HIP 30945 is an uncommon variable star. It sits in the constellation Lyn, shines at apparent magnitude 9.37 and has spectral type M5III-IVvar.

Its spectrum reads M5III-IVvar — 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 HIP 30945 in the constellation Lyn. At apparent magnitude 9.37, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 30945 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 HIP 30945 is an uncommon variable star

HIP 30945 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 5 science badges — Variable star, Cool red M-type star, Giant 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.