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Common star 16 EP

HD 214287

RA 339.3838° · Dec -28.7737° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
16 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Deep red star +8
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 16

6 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 1.7 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 K3/K4V — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 9.3 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out deep orange-red (B−V 1.5) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.

By the numbers

  • Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 3860 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

What's in a name

  • Its catalogue. The HD number is from the Henry Draper Catalogue, in which Annie Jump Cannon personally classified the spectra of nearly 400,000 stars — still the largest such feat by one person.

Properties

absmag
-10.73
bv
1.455
constellation
PsA
luminosity
1706082.389
mag
9.27
name
HD 214287
spect
K3/K4V

About HD 214287

HD 214287 is a common star. It sits in the constellation PsA, shines at apparent magnitude 9.27 and has spectral type K3/K4V.

Its spectrum reads K3/K4V — 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 214287 in the constellation PsA. At apparent magnitude 9.27, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 214287 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 214287 is a common star

HD 214287 scores 16 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Orange K-type star, Main-sequence star and Deep red 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.