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Trash star 11 EP

HD 221531

RA 353.2459° · Dec -11.9876° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
11 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • White A-type star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 11

4 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads Ap — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

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 8.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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. ≈ 5.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 489.7 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
3.425
bv
0.432
constellation
Aqr
dist ly
313.6114
luminosity
3.7154
mag
8.34
name
HD 221531
spect
Ap

About HD 221531

HD 221531 is a trash star. It lies about 313.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aqr, shines at apparent magnitude 8.34 and has spectral type Ap.

Its spectrum reads Ap — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HD 221531 in the constellation Aqr. At apparent magnitude 8.34, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 221531 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 221531 is a trash star

HD 221531 scores 11 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, On the zodiac and White A-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.