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Common star 19 EP

18 Aqr

RA 321.0479° · Dec -12.8781° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
19 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 19

3 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F0V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • 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 5.5 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Aquarius.
  • 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 August — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 2.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.115
bv
0.297
constellation
Aqr
dist ly
153.6299
luminosity
12.4165
mag
5.48
name
18 Aqr
spect
F0V

About 18 Aqr

18 Aqr is a common star. It lies about 153.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aqr, shines at apparent magnitude 5.48 and has spectral type F0V.

Its spectrum reads F0V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for 18 Aqr in the constellation Aqr. At apparent magnitude 5.48, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 18 Aqr 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 18 Aqr is a common star

18 Aqr 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 5 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, On the zodiac, Yellow-white F-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.