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Uncommon star 30 EP

HD 44391

RA 95.6995° · Dec 27.9867° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
30 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Supergiant +18
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 30

4 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Supergiant · +18

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K0Ib — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • 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 7.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Auriga.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north 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. ≈ 23 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.339
bv
1.387
constellation
Aur
dist ly
1309.8634
luminosity
119.0145
mag
7.68
name
HD 44391
spect
K0Ib

About HD 44391

HD 44391 is an uncommon star. It lies about 1,309.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aur, shines at apparent magnitude 7.68 and has spectral type K0Ib.

Its spectrum reads K0Ib — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 44391 in the constellation Aur. At apparent magnitude 7.68, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 44391 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 44391 is an uncommon star

HD 44391 scores 30 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Orange K-type star and Supergiant — 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.