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Common star 21 EP

8 PsA

RA 324.0457° · Dec -26.1715° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
21 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • White A-type star +5
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Star +3
Total score 21

1 more point to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A7/A8IV — 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 5.7 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Piscis Austrinus.
  • 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. ≈ 3.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 297.6 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
1.896
bv
0.234
constellation
PsA
dist ly
190.6232
luminosity
15.1915
mag
5.73
name
8 PsA
spect
A7/A8IV

About 8 PsA

8 PsA is a common star. It lies about 190.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation PsA, shines at apparent magnitude 5.73 and has spectral type A7/A8IV.

Its spectrum reads A7/A8IV — 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 8 PsA in the constellation PsA. At apparent magnitude 5.73, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 8 PsA 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 8 PsA is a common star

8 PsA 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, Naked-eye visible, White A-type star and Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) — 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.