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Uncommon star 31 EP

HD 13268

RA 32.8738° · Dec 56.1588° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
31 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Blazing O-type star +26
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 31

3 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Blazing O-type star · +26
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 4.5 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads O8Vnn — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 8.2 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out brilliant white (B−V 0.1) — hotter and whiter than the Sun, the colour of Sirius or Vega.
  • 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.

Properties

absmag
-11.81
bv
0.063
constellation
Per
luminosity
4613175.7456
mag
8.19
name
HD 13268
spect
O8Vnn

Nearby objects

About HD 13268

HD 13268 is an uncommon star. It sits in the constellation Per, shines at apparent magnitude 8.19 and has spectral type O8Vnn.

Its spectrum reads O8Vnn — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.

How to see it

Look for HD 13268 in the constellation Per. At apparent magnitude 8.19, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 13268 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 13268 is an uncommon star

HD 13268 scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Blazing O-type star and Main-sequence 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.