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Common star 19 EP

45 Tau

RA 62.8345° · Dec 5.5230° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
19 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 19

3 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

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

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F4V — 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 5.7 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Taurus.
  • 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 2.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.87
bv
0.36
constellation
Tau
dist ly
120.6197
luminosity
6.1944
mag
5.71
name
45 Tau
spect
F4V

About 45 Tau

45 Tau is a common star. It lies about 120.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tau, shines at apparent magnitude 5.71 and has spectral type F4V.

Its spectrum reads F4V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for 45 Tau in the constellation Tau. At apparent magnitude 5.71, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 45 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 45 Tau is a common star

45 Tau scores 19 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, On the zodiac, 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.