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Rare star 43 EP

HD 149900

RA 249.9611° · Dec -47.1067° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
43 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Supergiant +18
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
Total score 43

7 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G1Ib — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a supergiant, hundreds of times wider than the Sun.

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 8.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Ara.
  • 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 May — 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. ≈ 40.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.684
bv
1.456
constellation
Ara
dist ly
2313.1633
luminosity
163.531
mag
8.57
name
HD 149900
spect
G1Ib

About HD 149900

HD 149900 is a rare star. It lies about 2,313.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ara, shines at apparent magnitude 8.57 and has spectral type G1Ib.

Its spectrum reads G1Ib — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 149900 in the constellation Ara. At apparent magnitude 8.57, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 149900 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 HD 149900 is a rare star

HD 149900 scores 43 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Sun-like G-type star, Supergiant and Deep red 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.