About HR 4276
HR 4276 is an epic variable star. It sits in the constellation Car, shines at apparent magnitude 6.36 and has spectral type G3Ia.
Its spectrum reads G3Ia — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Epic variable star 60 EP
HR 4276
RA 164.4508° · Dec -59.7322° · star
Score breakdown
· 6 badgesEpic 78 pts → Anomaly
- Supergiant +18
- Fades out of naked-eye view +16
- Strongly variable +10
- Sun-like G-type star +8
- Variable star +5
- A named variable star +3
Total score 60
18 more points to reach Anomaly.
Badges
- Variable star · +5
- Sun-like G-type star · +8
- Supergiant · +18
- Strongly variable · +10
- Fades out of naked-eye view · +16
- A named variable star · +3
Trivia
What it actually is
- Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G3Ia — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
- 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 6.4 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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 orange (B−V 0.8) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.
- 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
- -13.64
- bv
- 0.84
- constellation
- Car
- luminosity
- 24888573.1828
- mag
- 6.36
- name
- HR 4276
- spect
- G3Ia
- var amplitude
- 1.12
- var designation
- U
- var max
- 5.758
- var min
- 6.878
Nearby objects
How to see it
Look for HR 4276 in the constellation Car. At apparent magnitude 6.36, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, HR 4276 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 4276 is an epic variable star
HR 4276 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 6 science badges — Variable star, Sun-like G-type star, Supergiant, Strongly 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.