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Uncommon star 23 EP

Eta Pyx

RA 129.4673° · Dec -26.2550° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
23 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • White A-type star +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 23

11 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Blue-white star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A0V — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 5.2 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Pyxis.
  • 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 4.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.981
bv
-0.03
constellation
Pyx
dist ly
231.8095
luminosity
35.2858
mag
5.24
name
Eta Pyx
spect
A0V

About Eta Pyx

Eta Pyx is an uncommon star. It lies about 231.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pyx, shines at apparent magnitude 5.24 and has spectral type A0V.

Its spectrum reads A0V — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for Eta Pyx in the constellation Pyx. At apparent magnitude 5.24, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Eta Pyx 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 Eta Pyx is an uncommon star

Eta Pyx scores 23 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, White A-type star, Main-sequence star and Blue-white 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.