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Rare variable star 39 EP

Lam Cru

RA 193.6633° · Dec -59.1467° · star

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Score breakdown

· 8 badges
39 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Under the Southern Cross +8
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 39

11 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Under the Southern Cross · +8
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Blue-white star · +5
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B4Vn — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.
  • 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 4.6 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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 April — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
-0.733
bv
-0.153
constellation
Cru
dist ly
383.7131
luminosity
171.0803
mag
4.62
name
Lam Cru
spect
B4Vn
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
Lam
var max
4.605
var min
4.635

About Lam Cru

Lam Cru is a rare variable star. It lies about 383.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cru, shines at apparent magnitude 4.62 and has spectral type B4Vn.

Its spectrum reads B4Vn — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for Lam Cru in the constellation Cru. At apparent magnitude 4.62, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Lam Cru 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 Lam Cru is a rare variable star

Lam Cru scores 39 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Under the Southern Cross, Hot blue B-type star, Main-sequence star, Blue-white star, Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) 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.