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Rare star 38 EP

HD 169883

RA 277.6265° · Dec -59.2921° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
38 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Giant star +6
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Star +3
Total score 38

12 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Giant star · +6
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M1/M2III — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

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 7.8 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Pavo.
  • 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. ≈ 54.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 4.8 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
-2.063
bv
1.696
constellation
Pav
dist ly
3076.9433
luminosity
582.3713
mag
7.81
name
HD 169883
spect
M1/M2III

About HD 169883

HD 169883 is a rare star. It lies about 3,076.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pav, shines at apparent magnitude 7.81 and has spectral type M1/M2III.

Its spectrum reads M1/M2III — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

How to see it

Look for HD 169883 in the constellation Pav. At apparent magnitude 7.81, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 169883 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 169883 is a rare star

HD 169883 scores 38 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Cool red M-type star, Giant star, Deep red star and Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) — 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.