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Rare star 41 EP

HD 216898

RA 343.9269° · Dec 62.3063° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
41 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Blazing O-type star +26
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 41

9 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Blazing O-type star · +26
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads O8.5V — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Cepheus.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 33.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.831
bv
0.479
constellation
Cep
dist ly
1929.9172
luminosity
187.2406
mag
8.03
name
HD 216898
spect
O8.5V

About HD 216898

HD 216898 is a rare star. It lies about 1,929.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cep, shines at apparent magnitude 8.03 and has spectral type O8.5V.

Its spectrum reads O8.5V — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.

How to see it

Look for HD 216898 in the constellation Cep. At apparent magnitude 8.03, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 216898 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 216898 is a rare star

HD 216898 scores 41 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Never sets (northern circumpolar), Blazing O-type star and Main-sequence 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.