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Rare variable star 40 EP

Ashlesha

RA 131.6938° · Dec 6.4188° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
40 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 40

10 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Giant star · +6
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G0III-IV — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.
  • 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 3.4 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Hydra.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
0.39
bv
0.685
constellation
Hya
dist ly
129.2732
luminosity
60.8135
mag
3.38
name
Ashlesha
named
yes
spect
G0III-IV
var amplitude
0.02
var designation
Eps
var max
3.37
var min
3.39

About Ashlesha

Ashlesha is a rare variable star. It lies about 129.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Hya, shines at apparent magnitude 3.38 and has spectral type G0III-IV.

Its spectrum reads G0III-IV — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for Ashlesha in the constellation Hya. At apparent magnitude 3.38, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Ashlesha 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 Ashlesha is a rare variable star

Ashlesha scores 40 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Has a proper name, Sun-like G-type star, Giant 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.