Common star 17 EP

HD 218244

RA 346.9263° · Dec -66.6523° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges

17 pts · Common

Common 22 pts → Uncommon

Sun-like G-type star +8
Giant star +6
Star +3

Total score 17

5 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

Star · +3
Sun-like G-type star · +8
Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G8III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.

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 8.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Tucana.
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. ≈ 16.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag: 1.374
bv: 1.026
constellation: Tuc
dist ly: 934.5446
luminosity: 24.5697
mag: 8.66
name: HD 218244
spect: G8III

Nearby objects

About HD 218244

HD 218244 is a common star. It lies about 934.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tuc, shines at apparent magnitude 8.66 and has spectral type G8III.

Its spectrum reads G8III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 218244 in the constellation Tuc. At apparent magnitude 8.66, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 218244 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 218244 is a common star

HD 218244 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, Sun-like G-type star and Giant 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.