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Common star 17 EP

HD 318931

RA 271.4838° · Dec -31.9225° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
17 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Toward the galactic centre +8
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 17

5 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Toward the galactic centre · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F2 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived 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 9.2 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Sagittarius.
  • 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. ≈ 12.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 1.1 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
2.53
bv
0.349
constellation
Sgr
dist ly
719.9913
luminosity
8.4723
mag
9.25
name
HD 318931
spect
F2

About HD 318931

HD 318931 is a common star. It lies about 720 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr, shines at apparent magnitude 9.25 and has spectral type F2.

Its spectrum reads F2 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 318931 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 9.25, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 318931 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 318931 is a common star

HD 318931 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, Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac and Yellow-white F-type 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.