Common star 17 EP

HD 160812

RA 265.9297° · Dec -38.1959° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges

17 pts · Common

Common 22 pts → Uncommon

Hot blue B-type star +6
Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
Star +3
On the zodiac +3

Total score 17

5 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

Star · +3
On the zodiac · +3
Hot blue B-type star · +6
Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 5.2 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 B3IV — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.

Find it in the sky

How to spot it. At magnitude 8 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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 brilliant white (B−V 0.2) — hotter and whiter than the Sun, the colour of Sirius or Vega.
Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.

Properties

absmag: -11.97
bv: 0.16
constellation: Sco
luminosity: 5345643.594
mag: 8.03
name: HD 160812
spect: B3IV

Nearby objects

About HD 160812

HD 160812 is a common star. It sits in the constellation Sco, shines at apparent magnitude 8.03 and has spectral type B3IV.

Its spectrum reads B3IV — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 160812 in the constellation Sco. At apparent magnitude 8.03, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 160812 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 160812 is a common star

HD 160812 scores 17 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, On the zodiac, Hot blue B-type star and Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) — 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.