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Uncommon star 22 EP

HD 173891

RA 282.3376° · Dec -36.6354° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
22 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Toward the galactic centre +8
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 22

12 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Toward the galactic centre · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F0/F2IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

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 8.7 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 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. ≈ 11.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 1 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
2.098
bv
0.397
constellation
Sgr
dist ly
669.7248
luminosity
12.6125
mag
8.66
name
HD 173891
spect
F0/F2IV

About HD 173891

HD 173891 is an uncommon star. It lies about 669.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr, shines at apparent magnitude 8.66 and has spectral type F0/F2IV.

Its spectrum reads F0/F2IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 173891 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 8.66, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 173891 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 173891 is an uncommon star

HD 173891 scores 22 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac, Yellow-white F-type star and Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) — 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.