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Uncommon star 23 EP

HD 207171

RA 326.8617° · Dec -13.1217° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
23 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Bright giant +12
  • White A-type star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 23

11 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Bright giant · +12

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A5II/III — 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.
  • Where it is in life. It is a bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.

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 8.1 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.

Could we get there?

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

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 14.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.074
constellation
Cap
dist ly
840.6084
luminosity
32.3892
mag
8.13
name
HD 207171
spect
A5II/III

About HD 207171

HD 207171 is an uncommon star. It lies about 840.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cap, shines at apparent magnitude 8.13 and has spectral type A5II/III.

Its spectrum reads A5II/III — 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 207171 in the constellation Cap. At apparent magnitude 8.13, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 207171 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 207171 is an uncommon star

HD 207171 scores 23 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, On the zodiac, White A-type star and Bright giant — 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.