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Common star 19 EP

HD 176486

RA 284.9948° · Dec 12.8900° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
19 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Deep red star +8
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 19

3 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B9.5V+... — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 7.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Aquila.
  • 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 deep orange-red (B−V 1.6) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.

By the numbers

  • Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 3600 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

What's in a name

  • Its catalogue. The HD number is from the Henry Draper Catalogue, in which Annie Jump Cannon personally classified the spectra of nearly 400,000 stars — still the largest such feat by one person.

Properties

absmag
-12.74
bv
1.633
constellation
Aql
luminosity
10864256.2362
mag
7.26
name
HD 176486
spect
B9.5V+...

Nearby objects

About HD 176486

HD 176486 is a common star. It sits in the constellation Aql, shines at apparent magnitude 7.26 and has spectral type B9.5V+....

Its spectrum reads B9.5V+... — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 176486 in the constellation Aql. At apparent magnitude 7.26, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 176486 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 176486 is a common star

HD 176486 scores 19 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Hot blue B-type star, Main-sequence star and Deep red 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.