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Rare star 40 EP

HD 236947

RA 31.8002° · Dec 58.7877° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
40 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Supergiant +18
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Star +3
Total score 40

10 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M2Ia0-a... — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
  • Where it is in life. It is a luminous supergiant — among the largest and rarest stars in the galaxy.

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 8.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Perseus.
  • 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 October — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 32.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.175
bv
2.157
constellation
Per
dist ly
1863.7487
luminosity
102.3293
mag
8.61
name
HD 236947
spect
M2Ia0-a...

About HD 236947

HD 236947 is a rare star. It lies about 1,863.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Per, shines at apparent magnitude 8.61 and has spectral type M2Ia0-a....

Its spectrum reads M2Ia0-a... — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

How to see it

Look for HD 236947 in the constellation Per. At apparent magnitude 8.61, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 236947 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 236947 is a rare star

HD 236947 scores 40 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Cool red M-type star, Supergiant and Deep red 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.