About HD 58385
HD 58385 is a rare star. It sits in the constellation Mon, shines at apparent magnitude 8.66 and has spectral type C5II.
Its spectrum reads C5II — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
Rare star 47 EP
HD 58385
RA 111.3044° · Dec -3.1343° · star
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Carbon star (sooty red) +24
- Bright giant +12
- Deep red star +8
- Star +3
Total score 47
3 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
- Bright giant · +12
- Deep red star · +8
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 2.9 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.
What it actually is
- Spectral class. Its spectrum reads C5II — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
- Where it is in life. It is a bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 8.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Monoceros.
- 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 January — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out deep orange-red (B−V 2.3) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.
By the numbers
- Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 2900 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.
Properties
- absmag
- -11.34
- bv
- 2.29
- constellation
- Mon
- luminosity
- 2992264.6366
- mag
- 8.66
- name
- HD 58385
- spect
- C5II
How to see it
Look for HD 58385 in the constellation Mon. At apparent magnitude 8.66, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, HD 58385 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 58385 is a rare star
HD 58385 scores 47 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Carbon star (sooty red), Bright giant and Deep red 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.