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Common star 20 EP

Gam3Oct

RA 2.5094° · Dec -82.2240° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
20 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 20

2 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K1/K2III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

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 5.3 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Octans.
  • 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. ≈ 4.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 397.6 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
0.828
bv
1.049
constellation
Oct
dist ly
254.6104
luminosity
40.6256
mag
5.29
name
Gam3Oct
spect
K1/K2III

About Gam3Oct

Gam3Oct is a common star. It lies about 254.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Oct, shines at apparent magnitude 5.29 and has spectral type K1/K2III.

Its spectrum reads K1/K2III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for Gam3Oct in the constellation Oct. At apparent magnitude 5.29, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Gam3Oct 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 Gam3Oct is a common star

Gam3Oct 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, Naked-eye visible, Orange K-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.