← Back to dex
Common star 18 EP

22 Tau

RA 56.5121° · Dec 24.5279° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 5 badges
18 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • White A-type star +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 18

4 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

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

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A0Vn — 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 6.4 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Taurus.
  • 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. ≈ 6.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.097
bv
-0.02
constellation
Tau
dist ly
380.1351
luminosity
31.7103
mag
6.43
name
22 Tau
spect
A0Vn

About 22 Tau

22 Tau is a common star. It lies about 380.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tau, shines at apparent magnitude 6.43 and has spectral type A0Vn.

Its spectrum reads A0Vn — 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 22 Tau in the constellation Tau. At apparent magnitude 6.43, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, 22 Tau 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 22 Tau is a common star

22 Tau scores 18 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, On the zodiac, 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.