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Uncommon variable star 26 EP

HIP 49204

RA 150.6425° · Dec 17.0464° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
26 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 26

8 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 608.1 thousand times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A6 — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • 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.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 10.4 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Leo.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around February — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out yellow-white (B−V 0.4) — a shade brighter and crisper than our own Sun.
  • Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.

Properties

absmag
-9.63
bv
0.381
constellation
Leo
luminosity
619441.0751
mag
10.37
name
HIP 49204
spect
A6
var amplitude
0.54
var designation
XZ
var max
10.179
var min
10.719

About HIP 49204

HIP 49204 is an uncommon variable star. It sits in the constellation Leo, shines at apparent magnitude 10.37 and has spectral type A6.

Its spectrum reads A6 — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HIP 49204 in the constellation Leo. At apparent magnitude 10.37, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 49204 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 HIP 49204 is an uncommon variable star

HIP 49204 scores 26 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, On the zodiac, White A-type 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.