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Uncommon variable star 30 EP

HIP 65063

RA 200.0482° · Dec 9.1879° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
30 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 30

4 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F2.5 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • 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 11.9 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Virgo.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 20.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
4.127
constellation
Vir
dist ly
1148.4367
luminosity
1.9463
mag
11.86
name
HIP 65063
spect
F2.5
var amplitude
0.82
var designation
AV
var max
11.395
var min
12.215

About HIP 65063

HIP 65063 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 1,148.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vir, shines at apparent magnitude 11.86 and has spectral type F2.5.

Its spectrum reads F2.5 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HIP 65063 in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 11.86, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 65063 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 65063 is an uncommon variable star

HIP 65063 scores 30 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), On the zodiac, Yellow-white F-type star, Strongly 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.