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Uncommon variable star 33 EP

HD 78801

RA 137.0656° · Dec -51.4363° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
33 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Bright giant +12
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 33

1 more point to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F7/F8II — 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.

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 7.7 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 32.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.117
bv
1.12
constellation
Vel
dist ly
1874.4596
luminosity
243.6688
mag
7.68
name
HD 78801
spect
F7/F8II
var amplitude
0.43
var designation
BG
var max
7.495
var min
7.925

About HD 78801

HD 78801 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 1,874.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 7.68 and has spectral type F7/F8II.

Its spectrum reads F7/F8II — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 78801 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 7.68, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 78801 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 78801 is an uncommon variable star

HD 78801 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, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Yellow-white F-type star, Bright giant, Gently 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.