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Rare variable star 49 EP

HD 83388

RA 144.0611° · Dec -52.5447° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
49 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Bright giant +12
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 49

1 more point to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M2II — 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 bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.
  • 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 7.5 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.

Properties

absmag
-0.551
bv
1.635
constellation
Vel
dist ly
1347.7519
luminosity
144.6772
mag
7.53
name
HD 83388
spect
M2II
var amplitude
0.66
var designation
MS
var max
7.238
var min
7.898

About HD 83388

HD 83388 is a rare variable star. It lies about 1,347.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 7.53 and has spectral type M2II.

Its spectrum reads M2II — 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 83388 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 7.53, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 83388 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 83388 is a rare variable star

HD 83388 scores 49 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Cool red M-type star, Bright giant, Deep red 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.