← Back to dex
Rare star 37 EP

HIP 101648

RA 309.0759° · Dec 37.4174° · star

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

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 4 badges
37 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Blazing O-type star +26
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 37

13 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Blazing O-type star · +26
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads O9V — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 8.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Cygnus.
  • 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 47.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.646
bv
0.558
constellation
Cyg
dist ly
2695.5042
luminosity
157.9065
mag
8.94
name
HIP 101648
spect
O9V

About HIP 101648

HIP 101648 is a rare star. It lies about 2,695.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cyg, shines at apparent magnitude 8.94 and has spectral type O9V.

Its spectrum reads O9V — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.

How to see it

Look for HIP 101648 in the constellation Cyg. At apparent magnitude 8.94, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 101648 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 HIP 101648 is a rare star

HIP 101648 scores 37 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Blazing O-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.