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Uncommon star 22 EP

76 Tau

RA 67.0975° · Dec 14.7410° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
22 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 22

12 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F0IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.

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 5.9 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. ≈ 3.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.099
bv
0.325
constellation
Tau
dist ly
187.7696
luminosity
12.6009
mag
5.9
name
76 Tau
spect
F0IV

About 76 Tau

76 Tau is an uncommon star. It lies about 187.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tau, shines at apparent magnitude 5.9 and has spectral type F0IV.

Its spectrum reads F0IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for 76 Tau in the constellation Tau. At apparent magnitude 5.9, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 76 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 76 Tau is an uncommon star

76 Tau scores 22 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 12 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 Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) — 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.