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Common star 16 EP

70 Cet

RA 35.5517° · Dec -0.8849° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
16 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 16

6 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F0Vn — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 5.4 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Cetus.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 4.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.901
bv
0.335
constellation
Cet
dist ly
261.3429
luminosity
37.9839
mag
5.42
name
70 Cet
spect
F0Vn

About 70 Cet

70 Cet is a common star. It lies about 261.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cet, shines at apparent magnitude 5.42 and has spectral type F0Vn.

Its spectrum reads F0Vn — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for 70 Cet in the constellation Cet. At apparent magnitude 5.42, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 70 Cet 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 70 Cet is a common star

70 Cet scores 16 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Yellow-white F-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.