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Common star 15 EP

Tau For

RA 54.6986° · Dec -27.9431° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
15 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • White A-type star +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 15

7 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Blue-white star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A0V — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • 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 6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Fornax.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south 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. ≈ 6.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.655
bv
-0.027
constellation
For
dist ly
384.1648
luminosity
47.6431
mag
6.01
name
Tau For
spect
A0V

About Tau For

Tau For is a common star. It lies about 384.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation For, shines at apparent magnitude 6.01 and has spectral type A0V.

Its spectrum reads A0V — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for Tau For in the constellation For. At apparent magnitude 6.01, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, Tau For 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 Tau For is a common star

Tau For scores 15 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, White A-type star, Main-sequence star and Blue-white 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.