Trash star 12 EP

HD 173396

RA 282.2251° · Dec -60.2645° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges

12 pts · Trash

Trash 15 pts → Common

Giant star +6
Star +3
Orange K-type star +3

Total score 12

3 more points to reach Common.

Badges

Star · +3
Orange K-type star · +3
Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K0III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
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 8.1 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Pavo.
Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around July — 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. ≈ 12.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag: 1.427
bv: 1.096
constellation: Pav
dist ly: 698.407
luminosity: 23.3991
mag: 8.08
name: HD 173396
spect: K0III

Nearby objects

About HD 173396

HD 173396 is a trash star. It lies about 698.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pav, shines at apparent magnitude 8.08 and has spectral type K0III.

Its spectrum reads K0III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 173396 in the constellation Pav. At apparent magnitude 8.08, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 173396 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 173396 is a trash star

HD 173396 scores 12 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Orange K-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.