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Common star 17 EP

HD 221553

RA 353.3817° · Dec -59.9191° · 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 G6III/IV — 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 8.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Tucana.
  • 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. ≈ 7.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.824
bv
0.808
constellation
Tuc
dist ly
447.4019
luminosity
6.4625
mag
8.51
name
HD 221553
spect
G6III/IV

About HD 221553

HD 221553 is a common star. It lies about 447.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tuc, shines at apparent magnitude 8.51 and has spectral type G6III/IV.

Its spectrum reads G6III/IV — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 221553 in the constellation Tuc. At apparent magnitude 8.51, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 221553 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 221553 is a common star

HD 221553 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.