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Epic variable star 60 EP

HD 88539

RA 152.9742° · Dec -35.3247° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
60 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Carbon star (sooty red) +24
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 60

18 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads CH — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
  • 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 6.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Antlia.
  • 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. ≈ 40.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-2.559
bv
2.269
constellation
Ant
dist ly
2296.8734
luminosity
919.6022
mag
6.68
name
HD 88539
spect
CH
var amplitude
0.37
var designation
AB
var max
6.593
var min
6.963

About HD 88539

HD 88539 is an epic variable star. It lies about 2,296.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ant, shines at apparent magnitude 6.68 and has spectral type CH.

Its spectrum reads CH — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.

How to see it

Look for HD 88539 in the constellation Ant. At apparent magnitude 6.68, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 88539 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 88539 is an epic variable star

HD 88539 scores 60 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 18 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Carbon star (sooty red), Deep red star, Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2), 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.