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Common star 19 EP

51 Tau

RA 64.5967° · Dec 21.5793° · 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 F0V — 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 5.6 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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. ≈ 3.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.976
bv
0.277
constellation
Tau
dist ly
176.3007
luminosity
14.1124
mag
5.64
name
51 Tau
spect
F0V

About 51 Tau

51 Tau is a common star. It lies about 176.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tau, shines at apparent magnitude 5.64 and has spectral type F0V.

Its spectrum reads F0V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for 51 Tau in the constellation Tau. At apparent magnitude 5.64, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 51 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 51 Tau is a common star

51 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.