About HD 73678
HD 73678 is a rare variable star. It sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 8.05 and has spectral type G0II.
Its spectrum reads G0II — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Rare variable star 38 EP
HD 73678
RA 129.4201° · Dec -47.3620° · star
Score breakdown
· 5 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Bright giant +12
- Strongly variable +10
- Sun-like G-type star +8
- Variable star +5
- A named variable star +3
Total score 38
12 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Variable star · +5
- Sun-like G-type star · +8
- Bright giant · +12
- Strongly variable · +10
- A named variable star · +3
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 5.2 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 G0II — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
- Where it is in life. It is a bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.
- 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 8.1 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 0.9) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.
Properties
- absmag
- -11.95
- bv
- 0.885
- constellation
- Vel
- luminosity
- 5248074.6025
- mag
- 8.05
- name
- HD 73678
- spect
- G0II
- var amplitude
- 0.63
- var designation
- T
- var max
- 7.687
- var min
- 8.317
How to see it
Look for HD 73678 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 8.05, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, HD 73678 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 HD 73678 is a rare variable star
HD 73678 scores 38 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Sun-like G-type star, Bright giant, Strongly 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.