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Uncommon star 29 EP

HD 64568

RA 118.4092° · Dec -26.2341° · star

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Score breakdown

· 2 badges
29 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Blazing O-type star +26
  • Star +3
Total score 29

5 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Blazing O-type star · +26

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 1.5 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 O5/O6 — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 9.4 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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 January — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out brilliant white (B−V 0.1) — hotter and whiter than the Sun, the colour of Sirius or Vega.
  • Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.

By the numbers

  • Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 9450 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

Properties

absmag
-10.61
bv
0.058
constellation
Pup
luminosity
1527566.0582
mag
9.39
name
HD 64568
spect
O5/O6

About HD 64568

HD 64568 is an uncommon star. It sits in the constellation Pup, shines at apparent magnitude 9.39 and has spectral type O5/O6.

Its spectrum reads O5/O6 — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.

How to see it

Look for HD 64568 in the constellation Pup. At apparent magnitude 9.39, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 64568 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 64568 is an uncommon star

HD 64568 scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 2 science badges — Star and Blazing O-type 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.