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Uncommon variable star 26 EP

HR 5355

RA 214.6594° · Dec -18.7160° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
26 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 26

8 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads Ap Si(Cr) — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • 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 5.9 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Virgo.
  • 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.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 5.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.816
bv
0.013
constellation
Vir
dist ly
332.8122
luminosity
41.0771
mag
5.86
name
HR 5355
spect
Ap Si(Cr)
var amplitude
0.04
var designation
CS
var max
5.836
var min
5.876

About HR 5355

HR 5355 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 332.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vir, shines at apparent magnitude 5.86 and has spectral type Ap Si(Cr).

Its spectrum reads Ap Si(Cr) — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HR 5355 in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 5.86, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 5355 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 HR 5355 is an uncommon variable star

HR 5355 scores 26 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, On the zodiac, White A-type 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.