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Common star 21 EP

HD 197837

RA 310.2627° · Dec 71.8539° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
21 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
Total score 21

1 more point to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G5 — 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 8.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Cepheus.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • 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. ≈ 46.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 4.1 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
-0.933
bv
0.254
constellation
Cep
dist ly
2630.2903
luminosity
205.6838
mag
8.6
name
HD 197837
spect
G5

About HD 197837

HD 197837 is a common star. It lies about 2,630.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cep, shines at apparent magnitude 8.6 and has spectral type G5.

Its spectrum reads G5 — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 197837 in the constellation Cep. At apparent magnitude 8.6, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 197837 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 197837 is a common star

HD 197837 scores 21 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Never sets (northern circumpolar) and Sun-like G-type 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.