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Uncommon star 22 EP

HD 180656

RA 288.5854° · Dec 55.9404° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
22 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Bright giant +12
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 22

12 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Bright giant · +12

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K1II — 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 bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.

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 Draco.
  • 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 9.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.602
bv
1.048
constellation
Dra
dist ly
550.9391
luminosity
50.0265
mag
6.74
name
HD 180656
spect
K1II

About HD 180656

HD 180656 is an uncommon star. It lies about 550.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Dra, shines at apparent magnitude 6.74 and has spectral type K1II.

Its spectrum reads K1II — 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 180656 in the constellation Dra. At apparent magnitude 6.74, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 180656 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 180656 is an uncommon star

HD 180656 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 4 science badges — Star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Orange K-type star and Bright giant — 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.