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Uncommon star 22 EP

HD 17234

RA 42.1031° · Dec 58.8319° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
22 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Bright giant +12
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 22

12 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Bright giant · +12

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K0II — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is a bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.

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 7.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Cassiopeia.
  • 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 November — 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. ≈ 17.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.152
bv
1.068
constellation
Cas
dist ly
979.4474
luminosity
75.7182
mag
7.54
name
HD 17234
spect
K0II

About HD 17234

HD 17234 is an uncommon star. It lies about 979.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 7.54 and has spectral type K0II.

Its spectrum reads K0II — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 17234 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 7.54, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 17234 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 17234 is an uncommon star

HD 17234 scores 22 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Orange K-type star and Bright giant — 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.