About HD 97746
HD 97746 is an uncommon variable star. It sits in the constellation Car, shines at apparent magnitude 8.32 and has spectral type F4II.
Its spectrum reads F4II — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
Uncommon variable star 27 EP
HD 97746
RA 168.5002° · Dec -57.9109° · star
Score breakdown
· 5 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Bright giant +12
- Variable star +5
- Gently variable +4
- Yellow-white F-type star +3
- A named variable star +3
Total score 27
7 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Variable star · +5
- Yellow-white F-type star · +3
- Bright giant · +12
- Gently variable · +4
- A named variable star · +3
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 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 F4II — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
- Where it is in life. It is a bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.
- 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 8.3 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 yellow (B−V 0.7) — almost exactly the Sun's own shade — a stellar twin in colour, if not in size.
Properties
- absmag
- -11.68
- bv
- 0.72
- constellation
- Car
- luminosity
- 4092606.5973
- mag
- 8.32
- name
- HD 97746
- spect
- F4II
- var amplitude
- 0.37
- var designation
- GI
- var max
- 8.071
- var min
- 8.441
How to see it
Look for HD 97746 in the constellation Car. At apparent magnitude 8.32, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, HD 97746 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 97746 is an uncommon variable star
HD 97746 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, Yellow-white F-type star, Bright giant, 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.