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Common star 21 EP

Bet Oct

RA 341.5154° · Dec -81.3816° · 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 A9IV/V — 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 subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.

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 4.1 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Octans.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around September — 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. ≈ 2.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.827
bv
0.208
constellation
Oct
dist ly
149.2705
luminosity
40.6631
mag
4.13
name
Bet Oct
spect
A9IV/V

About Bet Oct

Bet Oct is a common star. It lies about 149.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Oct, shines at apparent magnitude 4.13 and has spectral type A9IV/V.

Its spectrum reads A9IV/V — 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 Bet Oct in the constellation Oct. At apparent magnitude 4.13, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Bet Oct 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 Bet Oct is a common star

Bet Oct 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.