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Epic variable star 59 EP

HR 4228

RA 162.0225° · Dec -59.9192° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
59 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Supergiant +18
  • Fades out of naked-eye view +16
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 59

19 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Gently variable · +4
  • Fades out of naked-eye view · +16
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A0Ia — 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.
  • Where it is in life. It is a luminous supergiant — among the largest and rarest stars in the galaxy.
  • 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 6 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Carina.
  • 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 March — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out brilliant white (B−V 0.3) — hotter and whiter than the Sun, the colour of Sirius or Vega.
  • 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
-14.02
bv
0.274
constellation
Car
luminosity
35318316.9792
mag
5.98
name
HR 4228
spect
A0Ia
var amplitude
0.08
var designation
V522
var max
5.949
var min
6.029

About HR 4228

HR 4228 is an epic variable star. It sits in the constellation Car, shines at apparent magnitude 5.98 and has spectral type A0Ia.

Its spectrum reads A0Ia — 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 HR 4228 in the constellation Car. At apparent magnitude 5.98, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 4228 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 HR 4228 is an epic variable star

HR 4228 scores 59 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 19 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, White A-type star, Supergiant, Gently variable, Fades out of naked-eye view 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.