About HD 90452
HD 90452 is an uncommon star. It sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 7.84 and has spectral type F8Iab:.
Its spectrum reads F8Iab: — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
Uncommon star 24 EP
HD 90452
RA 156.2929° · Dec -57.0638° · star
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Supergiant +18
- Star +3
- Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 24
10 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Yellow-white F-type star · +3
- Supergiant · +18
Trivia
What it actually is
- Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F8Iab: — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
- Where it is in life. It is a supergiant. Drop it where the Sun is and its surface would engulf the inner planets.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 7.8 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Vela.
- Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south 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 orange (B−V 1.1) — 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 4550 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
- -12.16
- bv
- 1.083
- constellation
- Vel
- luminosity
- 6367955.2091
- mag
- 7.84
- name
- HD 90452
- spect
- F8Iab:
Nearby objects
How to see it
Look for HD 90452 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 7.84, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, HD 90452 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 90452 is an uncommon star
HD 90452 scores 24 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Yellow-white F-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.