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Common variable star 18 EP

HIP 37120

RA 114.4169° · Dec -69.5423° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
18 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 18

4 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads k-m — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • 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 10.7 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Volans.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • 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.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 24.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.506
bv
0.347
constellation
Vol
dist ly
1393.829
luminosity
8.6616
mag
10.66
name
HIP 37120
spect
k-m
var amplitude
0.3
var designation
W
var max
10.571
var min
10.871

About HIP 37120

HIP 37120 is a common variable star. It lies about 1,393.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vol, shines at apparent magnitude 10.66 and has spectral type k-m.

Its spectrum reads k-m — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HIP 37120 in the constellation Vol. At apparent magnitude 10.66, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 37120 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 37120 is a common variable star

HIP 37120 scores 18 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), 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.