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Rare variable star 36 EP

24 UMa

RA 143.6205° · Dec 69.8303° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
36 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 36

14 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • 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 G4III-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 4.5 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Ursa Major.
  • 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
2.019
bv
0.781
constellation
UMa
dist ly
104.1367
luminosity
13.5644
mag
4.54
name
24 UMa
spect
G4III-IV
var amplitude
0.05
var designation
DK
var max
4.517
var min
4.567

About 24 UMa

24 UMa is a rare variable star. It lies about 104.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 4.54 and has spectral type G4III-IV.

Its spectrum reads G4III-IV — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for 24 UMa in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 4.54, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 24 UMa 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 24 UMa is a rare variable star

24 UMa scores 36 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 14 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Never sets (northern circumpolar), 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.