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Uncommon variable star 27 EP

HIP 53213

RA 163.2603° · Dec -49.9063° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
27 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 27

7 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F2.5 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • 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 11.6 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Vela.
  • 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 39.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.417
constellation
Vel
dist ly
2249.3518
luminosity
9.4016
mag
11.61
name
HIP 53213
spect
F2.5
var amplitude
0.99
var designation
AF
var max
10.86
var min
11.85

About HIP 53213

HIP 53213 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 2,249.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 11.61 and has spectral type F2.5.

Its spectrum reads F2.5 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HIP 53213 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 11.61, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 53213 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 53213 is an uncommon variable star

HIP 53213 scores 27 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Yellow-white F-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.