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Common variable star 18 EP

HIP 54744

RA 168.1156° · Dec -76.7396° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
18 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Variable star +5
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 18

4 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • 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 11.1 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Chamaeleon.
  • 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. ≈ 8.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 730.7 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
5.276
constellation
Cha
dist ly
467.9425
luminosity
0.6755
mag
11.06
name
HIP 54744
var amplitude
0.71
var designation
CV
var max
10.862
var min
11.572

About HIP 54744

HIP 54744 is a common variable star. It lies about 467.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cha and shines at apparent magnitude 11.06.

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.

How to see it

Look for HIP 54744 in the constellation Cha. At apparent magnitude 11.06, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 54744 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 54744 is a common variable star

HIP 54744 scores 18 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Variable 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.