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Rare variable star 39 EP

HR 3232

RA 122.9999° · Dec -46.6444° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
39 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 39

11 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F7p — 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.

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 5.8 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Vela.
  • 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.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 43.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-3.611
bv
0.626
constellation
Vel
dist ly
2452.3008
luminosity
2423.2599
mag
5.77
name
HR 3232
spect
F7p
var amplitude
0.34
var designation
AH
var max
5.516
var min
5.856

About HR 3232

HR 3232 is a rare variable star. It lies about 2,452.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 5.77 and has spectral type F7p.

Its spectrum reads F7p — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HR 3232 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 5.77, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 3232 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 3232 is a rare variable star

HR 3232 scores 39 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Naked-eye visible, Yellow-white F-type star, Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2), 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.