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Rare variable star 35 EP

HD 52567

RA 105.2131° · Dec -23.5966° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
35 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Bright giant +12
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 35

15 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Blue-white star · +5
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 1.6 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 B9II — 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 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 9.3 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Canis Major.
  • 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out blue-white (B−V -0.1) — the hallmark of a surface far hotter than the Sun's.

Properties

absmag
-10.68
bv
-0.075
constellation
CMa
luminosity
1629296.0326
mag
9.32
name
HD 52567
spect
B9II
var amplitude
0.13
var designation
LR
var max
9.256
var min
9.386

About HD 52567

HD 52567 is a rare variable star. It sits in the constellation CMa, shines at apparent magnitude 9.32 and has spectral type B9II.

Its spectrum reads B9II — 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 52567 in the constellation CMa. At apparent magnitude 9.32, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 52567 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 52567 is a rare variable star

HD 52567 scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Hot blue B-type star, Bright giant, Blue-white 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.