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Rare star 35 EP

HD 240165

RA 345.5515° · Dec 57.1939° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
35 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Blazing O-type star +26
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 35

15 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Blazing O-type star · +26
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 765.6 thousand 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 O9.5V — 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.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 10.1 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Cassiopeia.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around September — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out yellow-white (B−V 0.5) — a shade brighter and crisper than our own Sun.
  • Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.

Properties

absmag
-9.88
bv
0.459
constellation
Cas
luminosity
779830.1105
mag
10.12
name
HD 240165
spect
O9.5V

About HD 240165

HD 240165 is a rare star. It sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 10.12 and has spectral type O9.5V.

Its spectrum reads O9.5V — 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 240165 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 10.12, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 240165 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 240165 is a rare star

HD 240165 scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, 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.