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Common variable star 17 EP

HD 90242

RA 156.1532° · Dec -19.0925° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
17 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 17

5 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F5V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.
  • 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 8.1 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Hydra.
  • 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
3.239
bv
0.466
constellation
Hya
dist ly
303.1189
luminosity
4.4096
mag
8.08
name
HD 90242
spect
F5V
var amplitude
0.21
var designation
HS
var max
8.056
var min
8.266

About HD 90242

HD 90242 is a common variable star. It lies about 303.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Hya, shines at apparent magnitude 8.08 and has spectral type F5V.

Its spectrum reads F5V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 90242 in the constellation Hya. At apparent magnitude 8.08, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 90242 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 90242 is a common variable star

HD 90242 scores 17 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Yellow-white F-type star, Main-sequence star, 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.