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Common star 18 EP

68 Oph

RA 270.4383° · Dec 1.3051° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
18 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • White A-type star +5
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 18

4 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A2Vn — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 4.4 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Ophiuchus.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • 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. ≈ 5.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.344
bv
0.046
constellation
Oph
dist ly
292.5166
luminosity
119.5639
mag
4.42
name
68 Oph
spect
A2Vn

About 68 Oph

68 Oph is a common star. It lies about 292.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Oph, shines at apparent magnitude 4.42 and has spectral type A2Vn.

Its spectrum reads A2Vn — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for 68 Oph in the constellation Oph. At apparent magnitude 4.42, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 68 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 68 Oph is a common star

68 Oph scores 18 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, White A-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.