About HD 78278
HD 78278 is a trash star. It sits in the constellation Cnc, shines at apparent magnitude 10.61 and has spectral type R....
Its spectrum reads R... — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
Trash star 6 EP
HD 78278
RA 136.9880° · Dec 21.5869° · star
Score breakdown
· 2 badgesTrash 15 pts → Common
- Star +3
- On the zodiac +3
Total score 6
9 more points to reach Common.
Badges
- Star · +3
- On the zodiac · +3
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 487.5 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 R... — 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 10.6 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Cancer.
- Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around February — that's when to go looking.
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
- -9.39
- constellation
- Cnc
- luminosity
- 496592.3215
- mag
- 10.61
- name
- HD 78278
- spect
- R...
How to see it
Look for HD 78278 in the constellation Cnc. At apparent magnitude 10.61, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HD 78278 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 78278 is a trash star
HD 78278 scores 6 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 2 science badges — Star and On the zodiac — 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.