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Rare variable star 36 EP

HD 74194

RA 130.1991° · Dec -45.0584° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
36 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Blazing O-type star +26
  • Variable star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 36

14 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Blazing O-type star · +26
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads O9 — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.
  • 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 7.5 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 brilliant white (B−V 0.2) — hotter and whiter than the Sun, the colour of Sirius or Vega.
  • 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.

By the numbers

  • Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 8350 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

Properties

absmag
-12.45
bv
0.177
constellation
Vel
luminosity
8317637.711
mag
7.55
name
HD 74194
spect
O9
var amplitude
0.05
var designation
LM
var max
7.529
var min
7.579

About HD 74194

HD 74194 is a rare variable star. It sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 7.55 and has spectral type O9.

Its spectrum reads O9 — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.

How to see it

Look for HD 74194 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 7.55, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 74194 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 74194 is a rare variable star

HD 74194 scores 36 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 14 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Variable star, Blazing O-type star, Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) 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.