About Bet Phe
Bet Phe is an uncommon star. It sits in the constellation Phe, shines at apparent magnitude 3.32 and has spectral type G8IIIvar.
Its spectrum reads G8IIIvar — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Uncommon star 25 EP
Bet Phe
RA 16.5211° · Dec -46.7184° · star
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Naked-eye visible +8
- Sun-like G-type star +8
- Giant star +6
- Star +3
Total score 25
9 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Naked-eye visible · +8
- Sun-like G-type star · +8
- Giant star · +6
Trivia
What it actually is
- Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G8IIIvar — 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.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 3.3 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Phoenix.
- 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 October — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out orange (B−V 0.9) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.
- Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.
By the numbers
- Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 5040 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.
Properties
- absmag
- -16.68
- bv
- 0.885
- constellation
- Phe
- luminosity
- 409260659.73
- mag
- 3.32
- name
- Bet Phe
- spect
- G8IIIvar
How to see it
Look for Bet Phe in the constellation Phe. At apparent magnitude 3.32, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.
Like any astronomical target, Bet Phe 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 Bet Phe is an uncommon star
Bet Phe scores 25 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, 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.