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Epic variable star 55 EP

HR 3816

RA 143.0609° · Dec -62.7889° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
55 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Dramatic variable (over 2 magnitudes) +20
  • Fades out of naked-eye view +16
  • Red dwarf +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 55

23 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Red dwarf · +6
  • Dramatic variable (over 2 magnitudes) · +20
  • Fades out of naked-eye view · +16
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M6/M7pe — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
  • 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 7.4 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Carina.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • 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. ≈ 9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.44
bv
0.906
constellation
Car
dist ly
514.4416
luminosity
23.1206
mag
7.43
name
HR 3816
spect
M6/M7pe
var amplitude
4.32
var designation
R
var max
4.213
var min
8.533

About HR 3816

HR 3816 is an epic variable star. It lies about 514.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Car, shines at apparent magnitude 7.43 and has spectral type M6/M7pe.

Its spectrum reads M6/M7pe — 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 HR 3816 in the constellation Car. At apparent magnitude 7.43, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 3816 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 3816 is an epic variable star

HR 3816 scores 55 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 23 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Cool red M-type star, Red dwarf, Dramatic variable (over 2 magnitudes), Fades out of naked-eye view 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.