← Back to dex
Trash variable star 5 EP

HD 11961

RA 29.5157° · Dec 31.1344° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 1 badge
5 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Variable star +5
Total score 5

10 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5

Trivia

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 11.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 996.6 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
  • At 10% light speed. ≈ 6383 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
  • Distance. 638 light-years from Earth.

Look-back time

  • Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 1388.

Saying hello

  • Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 1277 years round-trip.

Properties

absmag
0.482
bv
1.252
constellation
Tri
dist ly
638.27
mag
6.94
name
HD 11961
spect
M5III

About HD 11961

HD 11961 is a trash variable star. It lies about 638.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tri, shines at apparent magnitude 6.94 and has spectral type M5III.

HD 11961 is a trash variable star worth 5 points across 1 science badge. Explore its facts, badges and place on the sky map, then add it to your dex on Spacedle.

How to see it

Look for HD 11961 in the constellation Tri. At apparent magnitude 6.94, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 11961 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 11961 is a trash variable star

HD 11961 scores 5 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 1 science badge — Variable 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.

spacedle A daily roll through the real universe. © 2026 spacedle. Buy me a coffee

Sky imagery and survey data courtesy of Aladin Lite & CDS, Strasbourg. Object data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive, JPL Small-Body Database, and the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue.