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Uncommon star 26 EP

HD 74462

RA 132.0858° · Dec 67.4500° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
26 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
Total score 26

8 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G5IV — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.

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 8.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Ursa Major.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around February — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 28.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.173
bv
0.968
constellation
UMa
dist ly
1647.2525
luminosity
74.2677
mag
8.69
name
HD 74462
spect
G5IV

About HD 74462

HD 74462 is an uncommon star. It lies about 1,647.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 8.69 and has spectral type G5IV.

Its spectrum reads G5IV — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 74462 in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 8.69, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 74462 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 74462 is an uncommon star

HD 74462 scores 26 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Never sets (northern circumpolar), Sun-like G-type star and Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) — 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.