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Uncommon star 29 EP

HD 209684

RA 331.3798° · Dec -13.7702° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
29 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Giant star +6
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 29

5 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Giant star · +6
  • Blue-white star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B2/B3III — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

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 9.8 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 23.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 2.1 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
1.768
bv
-0.181
constellation
Aqr
dist ly
1342.2057
luminosity
17.0923
mag
9.84
name
HD 209684
spect
B2/B3III

About HD 209684

HD 209684 is an uncommon star. It lies about 1,342.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aqr, shines at apparent magnitude 9.84 and has spectral type B2/B3III.

Its spectrum reads B2/B3III — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 209684 in the constellation Aqr. At apparent magnitude 9.84, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 209684 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 209684 is an uncommon star

HD 209684 scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), On the zodiac, Hot blue B-type star, Giant star and Blue-white 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.