← Back to dex
Rare star 45 EP

HR 2281

RA 94.6949° · Dec -50.3591° · star

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

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 5 badges
45 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Supergiant +18
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
Total score 45

5 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G2Ib — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a supergiant, hundreds of times wider 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 Puppis.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • 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. ≈ 37.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-2.061
bv
0.835
constellation
Pup
dist ly
2145.763
luminosity
581.2996
mag
7.03
name
HR 2281
spect
G2Ib

About HR 2281

HR 2281 is a rare star. It lies about 2,145.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pup, shines at apparent magnitude 7.03 and has spectral type G2Ib.

Its spectrum reads G2Ib — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HR 2281 in the constellation Pup. At apparent magnitude 7.03, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 2281 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 HR 2281 is a rare star

HR 2281 scores 45 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Sun-like G-type star, Supergiant and Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) — 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.