About HIP 78940
HIP 78940 is a trash star. It sits in the constellation Aps, shines at apparent magnitude 11.58 and has spectral type Gp.
Its spectrum reads Gp — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Trash star 11 EP
HIP 78940
RA 241.7174° · Dec -71.1923° · star
Score breakdown
· 2 badgesTrash 15 pts → Common
- Sun-like G-type star +8
- Star +3
Total score 11
4 more points to reach Common.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Sun-like G-type star · +8
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 199.5 thousand times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.
What it actually is
- Spectral class. Its spectrum reads Gp — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 11.6 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Apus.
- Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around May — that's when to go looking.
What's in a name
- Its catalogue. The HIP number comes from Hipparcos, the ESA satellite that between 1989 and 1993 pinned down 118,000 stars precisely enough to triangulate their distances.
Properties
- absmag
- -8.42
- constellation
- Aps
- luminosity
- 203235.7011
- mag
- 11.58
- name
- HIP 78940
- spect
- Gp
How to see it
Look for HIP 78940 in the constellation Aps. At apparent magnitude 11.58, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HIP 78940 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 78940 is a trash star
HIP 78940 scores 11 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 2 science badges — Star and Sun-like G-type 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.