← Back to dex
Uncommon variable star 27 EP

HR 3517

RA 132.4682° · Dec -39.1416° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 5 badges
27 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Bright giant +12
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 27

7 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A2/A3II/III — 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.
  • 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 6.4 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 February — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 4.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.975
bv
0.249
constellation
Vel
dist ly
248.0273
luminosity
14.1254
mag
6.38
name
HR 3517
spect
A2/A3II/III
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
HZ
var max
6.364
var min
6.394

About HR 3517

HR 3517 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 248 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 6.38 and has spectral type A2/A3II/III.

Its spectrum reads A2/A3II/III — 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 HR 3517 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 6.38, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 3517 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 HR 3517 is an uncommon variable star

HR 3517 scores 27 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, White A-type star, Bright giant, 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.