← Back to dex
Common star 19 EP

88 Tau

RA 68.9136° · Dec 10.1608° · star

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

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 4 badges
19 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • White A-type star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 19

3 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A5m — 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.

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 4.2 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. ≈ 2.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 243.9 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
0.849
bv
0.184
constellation
Tau
dist ly
156.2049
luminosity
39.8474
mag
4.25
name
88 Tau
spect
A5m

About 88 Tau

88 Tau is a common star. It lies about 156.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tau, shines at apparent magnitude 4.25 and has spectral type A5m.

Its spectrum reads A5m — 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 88 Tau in the constellation Tau. At apparent magnitude 4.25, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 88 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 88 Tau is a common star

88 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 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, On the zodiac and White A-type 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.