About HD 152960
HD 152960 is a common star. It sits in the constellation Sco, shines at apparent magnitude 9.69 and has spectral type G5/G6V:.
Its spectrum reads G5/G6V: — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Common star 16 EP
HD 152960
RA 254.4970° · Dec -31.9642° · star
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Sun-like G-type star +8
- Star +3
- On the zodiac +3
- Main-sequence star +2
Total score 16
6 more points to reach Uncommon.
Badges
- Star · +3
- On the zodiac · +3
- Sun-like G-type star · +8
- Main-sequence star · +2
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 1.1 million 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 G5/G6V: — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 9.7 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Scorpius.
- 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 June — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out orange (B−V 1) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.
By the numbers
- Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 4630 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.
What's in a name
- Its catalogue. The HD number is from the Henry Draper Catalogue, in which Annie Jump Cannon personally classified the spectra of nearly 400,000 stars — still the largest such feat by one person.
Properties
- absmag
- -10.31
- bv
- 1.047
- constellation
- Sco
- luminosity
- 1158777.3562
- mag
- 9.69
- name
- HD 152960
- spect
- G5/G6V:
How to see it
Look for HD 152960 in the constellation Sco. At apparent magnitude 9.69, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HD 152960 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 152960 is a common star
HD 152960 scores 16 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, On the zodiac, Sun-like G-type star and Main-sequence 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.