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Epic variable star 68 EP

HD 52432

RA 105.2581° · Dec -3.2525° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
68 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Carbon star (sooty red) +24
  • Supergiant +18
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 68

10 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads C7I — 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 supergiant. Drop it where the Sun is and its surface would engulf the inner planets.
  • 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 7.2 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Monoceros.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • 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
-1.159
bv
1.843
constellation
Mon
dist ly
1545.7629
luminosity
253.2795
mag
7.22
name
HD 52432
spect
C7I
var amplitude
0.27
var designation
V614
var max
7.093
var min
7.363

About HD 52432

HD 52432 is an epic variable star. It lies about 1,545.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Mon, shines at apparent magnitude 7.22 and has spectral type C7I.

Its spectrum reads C7I — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.

How to see it

Look for HD 52432 in the constellation Mon. At apparent magnitude 7.22, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 52432 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 52432 is an epic variable star

HD 52432 scores 68 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Carbon star (sooty red), Supergiant, 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.