Common star 15 EP

HD 87178

RA 150.8884° · Dec 9.8990° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges

15 pts · Common

Common 22 pts → Uncommon

Giant star +6
Star +3
On the zodiac +3
Yellow-white F-type star +3

Total score 15

7 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

Star · +3
On the zodiac · +3
Yellow-white F-type star · +3
Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F6III — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.

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 7.1 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Leo.
Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
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. ≈ 4.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag: 2.53
bv: 0.435
constellation: Leo
dist ly: 272.4779
luminosity: 8.4723
mag: 7.14
name: HD 87178
spect: F6III

Nearby objects

About HD 87178

HD 87178 is a common star. It lies about 272.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Leo, shines at apparent magnitude 7.14 and has spectral type F6III.

Its spectrum reads F6III — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 87178 in the constellation Leo. At apparent magnitude 7.14, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 87178 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 87178 is a common star

HD 87178 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 4 science badges — Star, On the zodiac, Yellow-white F-type star and Giant 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.