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Common star 21 EP

HR 9000

RA 356.2016° · Dec 55.7997° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
21 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
Total score 21

1 more point to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G4III: — 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 6.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Cassiopeia.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north 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. ≈ 8.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.581
bv
0.992
constellation
Cas
dist ly
488.9894
luminosity
51.0035
mag
6.46
name
HR 9000
spect
G4III:

About HR 9000

HR 9000 is a common star. It lies about 489 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 6.46 and has spectral type G4III:.

Its spectrum reads G4III: — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HR 9000 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 6.46, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 9000 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 HR 9000 is a common star

HR 9000 scores 21 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), 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.