Common star 15 EP

HD 206878

RA 326.3266° · Dec -13.6759° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges

15 pts · Common

Common 22 pts → Uncommon

Giant star +6
Star +3
On the zodiac +3
Orange K-type star +3

Total score 15

7 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

Star · +3
On the zodiac · +3
Orange K-type star · +3
Giant star · +6

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 3.2 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.

What it actually is

Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K3III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.

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 Capricornus.
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.

Its true colour

Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out orange (B−V 1.4) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.

By the numbers

Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 4020 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

Properties

absmag: -11.42
bv: 1.358
constellation: Cap
luminosity: 3221068.7913
mag: 8.58
name: HD 206878
spect: K3III

Nearby objects

About HD 206878

HD 206878 is a common star. It sits in the constellation Cap, shines at apparent magnitude 8.58 and has spectral type K3III.

Its spectrum reads K3III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 206878 in the constellation Cap. At apparent magnitude 8.58, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 206878 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 206878 is a common star

HD 206878 scores 15 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, On the zodiac, Orange K-type star and Giant 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.