About HD 87109
HD 87109 is an uncommon star. It sits in the constellation Car, shines at apparent magnitude 7.64 and has spectral type G8Ib/II.
Its spectrum reads G8Ib/II — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Uncommon star 29 EP
HD 87109
RA 150.2264° · Dec -60.2262° · star
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Supergiant +18
- Sun-like G-type star +8
- Star +3
Total score 29
5 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Sun-like G-type star · +8
- Supergiant · +18
Trivia
What it actually is
- Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G8Ib/II — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
- Where it is in life. It is a supergiant, hundreds of times wider than the Sun.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 7.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Carina.
- Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
- 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 orange (B−V 1.3) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.
By the numbers
- Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 4200 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
- -12.36
- bv
- 1.257
- constellation
- Car
- luminosity
- 7655966.0691
- mag
- 7.64
- name
- HD 87109
- spect
- G8Ib/II
How to see it
Look for HD 87109 in the constellation Car. At apparent magnitude 7.64, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, HD 87109 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 87109 is an uncommon star
HD 87109 scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Sun-like G-type star and Supergiant — 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.