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Common star 17 EP

HD 40512

RA 89.8747° · Dec 2.4762° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
17 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • In Orion's hunting ground +6
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 17

5 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • In Orion's hunting ground · +6
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F5IV — 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 7.8 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. ≈ 3.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
3.618
bv
0.461
constellation
Ori
dist ly
221.7241
luminosity
3.1103
mag
7.78
name
HD 40512
spect
F5IV

About HD 40512

HD 40512 is a common star. It lies about 221.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 7.78 and has spectral type F5IV.

Its spectrum reads F5IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 40512 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 7.78, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 40512 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 40512 is a common star

HD 40512 scores 17 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, In Orion's hunting ground, 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.