RA 140.6534° · Dec -53.4337° · star
6 more points to reach Uncommon.
HD 81261 is a common star. It lies about 2,025.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 8.63 and has spectral type A0Vm....
Its spectrum reads A0Vm... — 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.
Look for HD 81261 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 8.63, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, HD 81261 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.
HD 81261 scores 16 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), White A-type star and Main-sequence 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.