← Back to dex
Common star 18 EP

GL GJ 9169A

RA 73.9828° · Dec 4.6704° · star

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

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 4 badges
18 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Binary star +6
  • In Orion's hunting ground +6
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 18

4 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary star · +6
  • In Orion's hunting ground · +6
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Not one star but two. It is a binary: two stars orbiting a shared centre of mass. More than half of all the 'stars' you can see are actually multiple systems.

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F8 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

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 7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Orion.
  • 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 December — 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 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
4.305
binary
yes
bv
0.561
constellation
Ori
dist ly
113.8813
luminosity
1.652
mag
7.02
name
GL GJ 9169A
spect
F8

About GL GJ 9169A

GL GJ 9169A is a common star. It lies about 113.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 7.02 and has spectral type F8.

It is a binary: two stars orbiting a shared centre of mass. More than half of all the 'stars' you can see are actually multiple systems.

How to see it

Look for GL GJ 9169A in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 7.02, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, GL GJ 9169A 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 GL GJ 9169A is a common star

GL GJ 9169A 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 4 science badges — Star, Binary star, In Orion's hunting ground and Yellow-white F-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.