← Back to dex
Uncommon star 22 EP

HD 188576

RA 299.0705° · Dec -13.3480° · star

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

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 5 badges
22 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Toward the galactic centre +8
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 22

12 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Toward the galactic centre · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 1 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.

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 9.8 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out brilliant white (B−V 0) — hotter and whiter than the Sun, the colour of Sirius or Vega.
  • Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.

Properties

absmag
-10.18
bv
0.033
constellation
Sgr
luminosity
1028016.2981
mag
9.82
name
HD 188576
spect
B9.5V+...

About HD 188576

HD 188576 is an uncommon star. It sits in the constellation Sgr, shines at apparent magnitude 9.82 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 188576 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 9.82, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 188576 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 188576 is an uncommon star

HD 188576 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, Hot blue B-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.