← Back to dex
Uncommon variable star 33 EP

HD 74110

RA 132.7065° · Dec 78.9615° · star

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

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 6 badges
33 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 33

1 more point to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Giant star · +6
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M4IIIvar — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
  • 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 8.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Camelopardalis.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • 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.

Properties

absmag
1.151
bv
1.36
constellation
Cam
dist ly
962.1123
luminosity
30.1717
mag
8.5
name
HD 74110
spect
M4IIIvar
var amplitude
1.12
var designation
RS
var max
7.889
var min
9.009

About HD 74110

HD 74110 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 962.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cam, shines at apparent magnitude 8.5 and has spectral type M4IIIvar.

Its spectrum reads M4IIIvar — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

How to see it

Look for HD 74110 in the constellation Cam. At apparent magnitude 8.5, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 74110 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 74110 is an uncommon variable star

HD 74110 scores 33 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Cool red M-type star, Giant 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.