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Epic variable star 58 EP

HD 104214

RA 179.9949° · Dec -58.6008° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
58 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Carbon star (sooty red) +24
  • Under the Southern Cross +8
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 58

20 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Under the Southern Cross · +8
  • Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads C+ — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
  • 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 8.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Crux.
  • 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. ≈ 35.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.076
bv
2.21
constellation
Cru
dist ly
2025.8136
luminosity
93.4114
mag
8.89
name
HD 104214
spect
C+
var amplitude
0.16
var designation
DD
var max
8.83
var min
8.99

About HD 104214

HD 104214 is an epic variable star. It lies about 2,025.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cru, shines at apparent magnitude 8.89 and has spectral type C+.

Its spectrum reads C+ — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.

How to see it

Look for HD 104214 in the constellation Cru. At apparent magnitude 8.89, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 104214 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 104214 is an epic variable star

HD 104214 scores 58 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 20 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Under the Southern Cross, Carbon star (sooty red), Deep red 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.