← Back to dex
Uncommon star 25 EP

HD 166391

RA 272.7945° · Dec -17.3835° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 5 badges
25 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Toward the galactic centre +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • White A-type star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 25

9 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Toward the galactic centre · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A0/A1 — 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.

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 8.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 43.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 3.9 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
-0.787
bv
1.081
constellation
Sgr
dist ly
2470.8789
luminosity
179.8043
mag
8.61
name
HD 166391
spect
A0/A1

About HD 166391

HD 166391 is an uncommon star. It lies about 2,470.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr, shines at apparent magnitude 8.61 and has spectral type A0/A1.

Its spectrum reads A0/A1 — 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 HD 166391 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 8.61, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 166391 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 166391 is an uncommon star

HD 166391 scores 25 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac and White A-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.