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Common star 17 EP

HD 198709

RA 313.1215° · Dec -8.0630° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
17 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • White A-type star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 17

5 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A3 — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

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 8.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Aquarius.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around August — 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. ≈ 24.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 2.2 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
0.548
bv
0.221
constellation
Aqr
dist ly
1411.9306
luminosity
52.5775
mag
8.73
name
HD 198709
spect
A3

About HD 198709

HD 198709 is a common star. It lies about 1,411.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aqr, shines at apparent magnitude 8.73 and has spectral type A3.

Its spectrum reads A3 — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HD 198709 in the constellation Aqr. At apparent magnitude 8.73, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 198709 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 198709 is a common star

HD 198709 scores 17 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), On the zodiac and White A-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.