About HD 97317
HD 97317 is a common variable star. It sits in the constellation Cen, shines at apparent magnitude 8 and has spectral type F3III.
Its spectrum reads F3III — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
Common variable star 21 EP
HD 97317
RA 167.8349° · Dec -54.5570° · star
Score breakdown
· 5 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Giant star +6
- Variable star +5
- Gently variable +4
- Yellow-white F-type star +3
- A named variable star +3
Total score 21
1 more point to reach Uncommon.
Badges
- Variable star · +5
- Yellow-white F-type star · +3
- Giant star · +6
- Gently variable · +4
- A named variable star · +3
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 5.4 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.
What it actually is
- Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F3III — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
- Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.
- 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 8 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Centaurus.
- 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 yellow-white (B−V 0.6) — a shade brighter and crisper than our own Sun.
Properties
- absmag
- -12
- bv
- 0.574
- constellation
- Cen
- luminosity
- 5495408.7386
- mag
- 8
- name
- HD 97317
- spect
- F3III
- var amplitude
- 0.28
- var designation
- V898
- var max
- 7.783
- var min
- 8.063
How to see it
Look for HD 97317 in the constellation Cen. At apparent magnitude 8, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, HD 97317 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 97317 is a common variable star
HD 97317 scores 21 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Yellow-white F-type star, Giant 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.