About HD 85066
HD 85066 is a common star. It sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 9.9 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.
Common star 15 EP
HD 85066
RA 147.7723° · Dec 52.6237° · star
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Deep red 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
- Deep red star · +8
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 937.6 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 9.9 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Ursa Major.
- 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.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out deep orange-red (B−V 1.8) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.
By the numbers
- Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 3450 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.
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
- -10.1
- bv
- 1.75
- constellation
- UMa
- luminosity
- 954992.586
- mag
- 9.9
- name
- HD 85066
- spect
- R...
How to see it
Look for HD 85066 in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 9.9, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HD 85066 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 85066 is a common star
HD 85066 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 Deep red 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.