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Rare variable star 44 EP

HD 93506

RA 161.5126° · Dec -65.6146° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
44 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Carbon star (sooty red) +24
  • Deep red star +8
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 44

6 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads C+ — 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 8.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Carina.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around March — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 15.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.492
bv
2.1
constellation
Car
dist ly
905.989
luminosity
22.0394
mag
8.71
name
HD 93506
spect
C+
var amplitude
0.31
var designation
TZ
var max
8.564
var min
8.874

About HD 93506

HD 93506 is a rare variable star. It lies about 906 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Car, shines at apparent magnitude 8.71 and has spectral type C+.

Its spectrum reads C+ — 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 93506 in the constellation Car. At apparent magnitude 8.71, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 93506 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 93506 is a rare variable star

HD 93506 scores 44 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Carbon star (sooty red), Deep red 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.