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Common star 17 EP

HD 217808

RA 345.9667° · Dec -44.5951° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
17 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
Total score 17

5 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G3/G5w... — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

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 9.3 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Grus.
  • 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 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. ≈ 22.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 2 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
1.324
bv
0.737
constellation
Gru
dist ly
1284.0788
luminosity
25.7276
mag
9.3
name
HD 217808
spect
G3/G5w...

About HD 217808

HD 217808 is a common star. It lies about 1,284.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Gru, shines at apparent magnitude 9.3 and has spectral type G3/G5w....

Its spectrum reads G3/G5w... — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 217808 in the constellation Gru. At apparent magnitude 9.3, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 217808 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 217808 is a common star

HD 217808 scores 17 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years) and Sun-like G-type 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.