About HD 21303
HD 21303 is a trash star. It sits in the constellation Eri, shines at apparent magnitude 9.64 and has spectral type G5.
Its spectrum reads G5 — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Trash star 11 EP
HD 21303
RA 51.5127° · Dec -3.3681° · star
Score breakdown
· 2 badgesTrash 15 pts → Common
- Sun-like G-type star +8
- Star +3
Total score 11
4 more points to reach Common.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Sun-like G-type star · +8
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 1.2 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 G5 — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 9.6 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Eridanus.
- 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 November — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out orange (B−V 1.1) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.
By the numbers
- Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 4480 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.
What's in a name
- Its catalogue. The HD number is from the Henry Draper Catalogue, in which Annie Jump Cannon personally classified the spectra of nearly 400,000 stars — still the largest such feat by one person.
Properties
- absmag
- -10.36
- bv
- 1.118
- constellation
- Eri
- luminosity
- 1213388.8505
- mag
- 9.64
- name
- HD 21303
- spect
- G5
How to see it
Look for HD 21303 in the constellation Eri. At apparent magnitude 9.64, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HD 21303 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 21303 is a trash star
HD 21303 scores 11 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 2 science badges — Star and Sun-like G-type 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.