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Common star 19 EP

HD 186218

RA 296.8585° · Dec -65.5789° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
19 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 19

3 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G3:Vw... — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own 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 9.6 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 20.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 1.8 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
1.877
bv
0.797
constellation
Pav
dist ly
1148.4367
luminosity
15.4597
mag
9.61
name
HD 186218
spect
G3:Vw...

About HD 186218

HD 186218 is a common star. It lies about 1,148.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pav, shines at apparent magnitude 9.61 and has spectral type G3:Vw....

Its spectrum reads G3:Vw... — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 186218 in the constellation Pav. At apparent magnitude 9.61, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 186218 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 186218 is a common star

HD 186218 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, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Sun-like G-type star and Main-sequence 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.