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Epic variable star 72 EP

HR 2591

RA 103.6112° · Dec -42.3656° · star

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Score breakdown

· 8 badges
72 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Carbon star (sooty red) +24
  • Bright giant +12
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 72

6 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads C3II — 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.

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 6.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Puppis.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around January — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Properties

absmag
-2.186
bv
2.287
constellation
Pup
dist ly
1638.975
luminosity
652.2288
mag
6.32
name
HR 2591
spect
C3II
var amplitude
0.24
var designation
NP
var max
6.212
var min
6.452

About HR 2591

HR 2591 is an epic variable star. It lies about 1,639 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pup, shines at apparent magnitude 6.32 and has spectral type C3II.

Its spectrum reads C3II — 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 2591 in the constellation Pup. At apparent magnitude 6.32, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 2591 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 2591 is an epic variable star

HR 2591 scores 72 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Carbon star (sooty red), Bright giant, Deep red star, Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2), 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.