← Back to dex
Uncommon variable star 33 EP

HR 2974

RA 115.2192° · Dec -31.6612° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 5 badges
33 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Supergiant +18
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 33

1 more point to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F8/G0Ia — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • 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 6.6 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out orange (B−V 1.1) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.

By the numbers

  • Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 4580 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

What's in a name

  • Its catalogue. The HR number is from the Bright Star Catalogue — roughly 9,100 stars, essentially everything the unaided eye can see.

Properties

absmag
-13.4
bv
1.07
constellation
Pup
luminosity
19952623.1497
mag
6.6
name
HR 2974
spect
F8/G0Ia
var amplitude
0.25
var designation
R
var max
6.498
var min
6.748

Nearby objects

About HR 2974

HR 2974 is an uncommon variable star. It sits in the constellation Pup, shines at apparent magnitude 6.6 and has spectral type F8/G0Ia.

Its spectrum reads F8/G0Ia — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HR 2974 in the constellation Pup. At apparent magnitude 6.6, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 2974 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 2974 is an uncommon variable star

HR 2974 scores 33 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Yellow-white F-type star, Supergiant, 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.