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Trash star 8 EP

HD 168956

RA 275.3161° · Dec 26.7068° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
8 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 8

7 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F6V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • 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 8.4 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Hercules.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north 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. ≈ 4.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
4.135
bv
0.54
constellation
Her
dist ly
232.4703
luminosity
1.932
mag
8.4
name
HD 168956
spect
F6V

Nearby objects

About HD 168956

HD 168956 is a trash star. It lies about 232.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Her, shines at apparent magnitude 8.4 and has spectral type F6V.

Its spectrum reads F6V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 168956 in the constellation Her. At apparent magnitude 8.4, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 168956 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 168956 is a trash star

HD 168956 scores 8 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Yellow-white F-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.