About HD 60826
HD 60826 is a rare star. It sits in the constellation CMi, shines at apparent magnitude 10.43 and has spectral type C....
Its spectrum reads C... — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
Rare star 35 EP
HD 60826
RA 114.1320° · Dec 2.0702° · star
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Carbon star (sooty red) +24
- Deep red star +8
- Star +3
Total score 35
15 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Carbon star (sooty red) · +24
- Deep red star · +8
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 575.4 thousand 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 C... — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 10.4 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Canis Minor.
- 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 2.7) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.
By the numbers
- Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 2550 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.
What's in a name
- Its catalogue. The HD number is from the Henry Draper Catalogue, in which Annie Jump Cannon personally classified the spectra of nearly 400,000 stars — still the largest such feat by one person.
Properties
- absmag
- -9.57
- bv
- 2.741
- constellation
- CMi
- luminosity
- 586138.1645
- mag
- 10.43
- name
- HD 60826
- spect
- C...
How to see it
Look for HD 60826 in the constellation CMi. At apparent magnitude 10.43, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HD 60826 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 60826 is a rare star
HD 60826 scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Carbon star (sooty red) 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.