← Back to dex
Uncommon variable star 27 EP

37 Com

RA 195.0686° · Dec 30.7850° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 6 badges
27 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Orange K-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 27

7 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Giant star · +6
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K1IIIp — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.
  • 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 4.9 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Coma Berenices.
  • 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 April — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

absmag
-1.651
bv
1.165
constellation
Com
dist ly
660.2347
luminosity
398.474
mag
4.88
name
37 Com
spect
K1IIIp
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
LU
var max
4.865
var min
4.895

About 37 Com

37 Com is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 660.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Com, shines at apparent magnitude 4.88 and has spectral type K1IIIp.

Its spectrum reads K1IIIp — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for 37 Com in the constellation Com. At apparent magnitude 4.88, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 37 Com 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 37 Com is an uncommon variable star

37 Com 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 6 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Orange K-type star, Giant 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.