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Common star 20 EP

HD 50434

RA 103.4639° · Dec 14.7521° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
20 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 20

2 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G5III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.

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 Gemini.
  • 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 January — 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. ≈ 15.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.611
bv
0.973
constellation
Gem
dist ly
893.5781
luminosity
49.6135
mag
7.8
name
HD 50434
spect
G5III

About HD 50434

HD 50434 is a common star. It lies about 893.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Gem, shines at apparent magnitude 7.8 and has spectral type G5III.

Its spectrum reads G5III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 50434 in the constellation Gem. At apparent magnitude 7.8, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 50434 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 50434 is a common star

HD 50434 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 4 science badges — Star, On the zodiac, Sun-like G-type star and Giant 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.