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Epic variable star 55 EP

HR 2800

RA 110.2288° · Dec -26.9638° · star

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Score breakdown

· 9 badges
55 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Fades out of naked-eye view +16
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 55

23 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Blue-white star · +5
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • Fades out of naked-eye view · +16
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B3V — 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 on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.
  • 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 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

absmag
-3.414
bv
-0.172
constellation
CMa
dist ly
2489.7405
luminosity
2021.1568
mag
6
name
HR 2800
spect
B3V
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
HQ
var max
5.985
var min
6.015

About HR 2800

HR 2800 is an epic variable star. It lies about 2,489.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation CMa, shines at apparent magnitude 6 and has spectral type B3V.

Its spectrum reads B3V — 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 HR 2800 in the constellation CMa. At apparent magnitude 6, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 2800 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 2800 is an epic variable star

HR 2800 scores 55 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 23 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 9 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Hot blue B-type star, Main-sequence star, Blue-white star, Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2), Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) and Fades out of naked-eye view — 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.