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Uncommon star 28 EP

43 Oph

RA 260.8400° · Dec -28.1428° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
28 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Deep red star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 28

6 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Giant star · +6
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K4/K5III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

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 5.3 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Ophiuchus.
  • 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 14.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 1.3 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
-1.701
bv
1.549
constellation
Oph
dist ly
819.4875
luminosity
417.2535
mag
5.3
name
43 Oph
spect
K4/K5III

About 43 Oph

43 Oph is an uncommon star. It lies about 819.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Oph, shines at apparent magnitude 5.3 and has spectral type K4/K5III.

Its spectrum reads K4/K5III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for 43 Oph in the constellation Oph. At apparent magnitude 5.3, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 43 Oph 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 43 Oph is an uncommon star

43 Oph scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Orange K-type star, Giant star 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.