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Common star 20 EP

GL Gl 897A

RA 353.1949° · Dec -16.7521° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
20 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Deep red star +8
  • Binary star +6
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 20

2 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary star · +6
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Not one star but two. It is a binary: two stars orbiting a shared centre of mass. More than half of all the 'stars' you can see are actually multiple systems.

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 10.4 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Aquarius.
  • 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 11.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 986.9 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
3.953
binary
yes
bv
1.48
constellation
Aqr
dist ly
632.0851
luminosity
2.2845
mag
10.39
name
GL Gl 897A

About GL Gl 897A

GL Gl 897A is a common star. It lies about 632.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aqr and shines at apparent magnitude 10.39.

It is a binary: two stars orbiting a shared centre of mass. More than half of all the 'stars' you can see are actually multiple systems.

How to see it

Look for GL Gl 897A in the constellation Aqr. At apparent magnitude 10.39, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 897A 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 GL Gl 897A is a common star

GL Gl 897A scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Binary star, On the zodiac and Deep red 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.