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Common variable star 16 EP

HIP 58557

RA 180.1107° · Dec 51.9551° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
16 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Variable star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 16

6 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Gently variable · +4
  • 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 11.7 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Ursa Major.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 3.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 323.1 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
7.648
bv
1.223
constellation
UMa
dist ly
206.9519
luminosity
0.076
mag
11.66
name
HIP 58557
var amplitude
0.2
var designation
V350
var max
11.577
var min
11.777

About HIP 58557

HIP 58557 is a common variable star. It lies about 207 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa and shines at apparent magnitude 11.66.

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 58557 in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 11.66, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 58557 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 58557 is a common variable star

HIP 58557 scores 16 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Variable star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), 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.