← Back to dex
Trash star 11 EP

42 Aql

RA 294.4471° · Dec -4.6476° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 2 badges
11 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Star +3
Total score 11

4 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8

Trivia

Could we get there?

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

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 1.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 163.8 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
  • At 10% light speed. ≈ 1049 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
  • Distance. 105 light-years from Earth.

Look-back time

  • Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 1921.

Saying hello

  • Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 210 years round-trip.

Properties

absmag
2.914
bv
0.429
constellation
Aql
dist ly
104.8732
mag
5.45
name
42 Aql
spect
F3IV

About 42 Aql

42 Aql is a trash star. It lies about 104.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aql, shines at apparent magnitude 5.45 and has spectral type F3IV.

42 Aql is a trash star worth 11 points across 2 science badges. Explore its facts, badges and place on the sky map, then add it to your dex on Spacedle.

How to see it

Look for 42 Aql in the constellation Aql. At apparent magnitude 5.45, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 42 Aql 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 42 Aql is a trash star

42 Aql scores 11 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 2 science badges — Star and Naked-eye visible — 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.

spacedle A daily roll through the real universe. © 2026 spacedle. Buy me a coffee

Sky imagery and survey data courtesy of Aladin Lite & CDS, Strasbourg. Object data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive, JPL Small-Body Database, and the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue.