Uncommon variable star 22 EP

HIP 41784

RA 127.7970° · Dec -47.6659° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges

22 pts · Uncommon

Uncommon 34 pts → Rare

Variable star +5
White A-type star +5
Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
Gently variable +4
A named variable star +3

Total score 22

12 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

Variable star · +5
White A-type star · +5
Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5
Gently variable · +4
A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 3.2 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.

What it actually is

Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A3IV:comp SB — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.
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 8.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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.

Its true colour

Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out orange (B−V 0.8) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.

Properties

absmag: -11.42
bv: 0.813
constellation: Vel
luminosity: 3221068.7913
mag: 8.58
name: HIP 41784
spect: A3IV:comp SB
var amplitude: 0.09
var designation: AL
var max: 8.542
var min: 8.632

Nearby objects

About HIP 41784

HIP 41784 is an uncommon variable star. It sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 8.58 and has spectral type A3IV:comp SB.

Its spectrum reads A3IV:comp SB — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HIP 41784 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 8.58, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 41784 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 41784 is an uncommon variable star

HIP 41784 scores 22 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, White A-type star, Subgiant (leaving the main sequence), 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.