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Common star 15 EP

HD 83868

RA 146.2738° · Dec 71.4355° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
15 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
Total score 15

7 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G5 — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

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 8.6 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 15.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 1.4 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
1.419
bv
0.942
constellation
UMa
dist ly
874.4128
luminosity
23.5722
mag
8.56
name
HD 83868
spect
G5

About HD 83868

HD 83868 is a common star. It lies about 874.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 8.56 and has spectral type G5.

Its spectrum reads G5 — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 83868 in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 8.56, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 83868 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 83868 is a common star

HD 83868 scores 15 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Never sets (northern circumpolar) and Sun-like G-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.