About HIP 42492
HIP 42492 is a common variable star. It sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 10.16 and has spectral type F9.
Its spectrum reads F9 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
Common variable star 21 EP
HIP 42492
RA 129.9407° · Dec -43.8609° · star
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Strongly variable +10
- Variable star +5
- Yellow-white F-type star +3
- A named variable star +3
Total score 21
1 more point to reach Uncommon.
Badges
- Variable star · +5
- Yellow-white F-type star · +3
- Strongly variable · +10
- A named variable star · +3
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 737.9 thousand 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 F9 — 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 10.2 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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 1) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.
- Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.
Properties
- absmag
- -9.84
- bv
- 0.96
- constellation
- Vel
- luminosity
- 751622.894
- mag
- 10.16
- name
- HIP 42492
- spect
- F9
- var amplitude
- 0.64
- var designation
- AP
- var max
- 9.768
- var min
- 10.408
How to see it
Look for HIP 42492 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 10.16, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HIP 42492 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 42492 is a common variable star
HIP 42492 scores 21 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Variable star, Yellow-white F-type star, 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.