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Common star 16 EP

68 Eri

RA 77.1821° · Dec -4.4562° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
16 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 16

6 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

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

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F2V — 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. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 5.1 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Eridanus.
  • 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. ≈ 1.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
3.081
bv
0.455
constellation
Eri
dist ly
83.0334
luminosity
5.1004
mag
5.11
name
68 Eri
spect
F2V

About 68 Eri

68 Eri is a common star. It lies about 83 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Eri, shines at apparent magnitude 5.11 and has spectral type F2V.

Its spectrum reads F2V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for 68 Eri in the constellation Eri. At apparent magnitude 5.11, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 68 Eri 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 68 Eri is a common star

68 Eri scores 16 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, 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.