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Uncommon star 25 EP

HD 172236

RA 279.9738° · Dec -20.0713° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
25 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Toward the galactic centre +8
  • Giant star +6
  • White A-type star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 25

9 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Toward the galactic centre · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A8III — 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 a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.

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 6.7 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 4.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.341
bv
0.261
constellation
Sgr
dist ly
239.4683
luminosity
10.0832
mag
6.67
name
HD 172236
spect
A8III

About HD 172236

HD 172236 is an uncommon star. It lies about 239.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr, shines at apparent magnitude 6.67 and has spectral type A8III.

Its spectrum reads A8III — 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 172236 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 6.67, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 172236 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 172236 is an uncommon star

HD 172236 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, Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac, White A-type star and Giant 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.