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Common star 19 EP

GL Gl 391

RA 156.0989° · Dec -74.0316° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
19 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 19

3 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F2IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 4 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 929.8 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.939
bv
0.369
constellation
Car
dist ly
52.9129
luminosity
5.813
mag
3.99
name
GL Gl 391
spect
F2IV

About GL Gl 391

GL Gl 391 is a common star. It lies about 52.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Car, shines at apparent magnitude 3.99 and has spectral type F2IV.

Its spectrum reads F2IV — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for GL Gl 391 in the constellation Car. At apparent magnitude 3.99, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 391 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 GL Gl 391 is a common star

GL Gl 391 scores 19 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Yellow-white F-type star and Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) — 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.