← Back to dex
Common star 20 EP

HD 290086

RA 78.3605° · Dec -0.8089° · star

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

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 5 badges
20 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • In Orion's hunting ground +6
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 20

2 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • In Orion's hunting ground · +6
  • 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. 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 9.6 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 23.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.532
bv
0.467
constellation
Ori
dist ly
1315.1451
luminosity
21.2422
mag
9.56
name
HD 290086
spect
F2V

About HD 290086

HD 290086 is a common star. It lies about 1,315.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 9.56 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 HD 290086 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 9.56, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 290086 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 HD 290086 is a common star

HD 290086 scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), In Orion's hunting ground, 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.