About HD 174104
HD 174104 is an uncommon star. It sits in the constellation Lyr, shines at apparent magnitude 8.36 and has spectral type G0Ib.
Its spectrum reads G0Ib — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Uncommon star 29 EP
HD 174104
RA 281.9340° · Dec 28.7201° · star
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Supergiant +18
- Sun-like G-type star +8
- Star +3
Total score 29
5 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Sun-like G-type star · +8
- Supergiant · +18
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 3.9 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.
What it actually is
- Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G0Ib — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
- Where it is in life. It is a supergiant, hundreds of times wider than the Sun.
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 Lyra.
- 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 July — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out yellow (B−V 0.7) — almost exactly the Sun's own shade — a stellar twin in colour, if not in size.
- Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.
Properties
- absmag
- -11.64
- bv
- 0.718
- constellation
- Lyr
- luminosity
- 3944573.0208
- mag
- 8.36
- name
- HD 174104
- spect
- G0Ib
How to see it
Look for HD 174104 in the constellation Lyr. At apparent magnitude 8.36, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, HD 174104 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 174104 is an uncommon star
HD 174104 scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Sun-like G-type star and Supergiant — 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.