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Uncommon star 22 EP

HIP 51289

RA 157.1517° · Dec -26.5996° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
22 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Deep red star +8
  • Red dwarf +6
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Star +3
Total score 22

12 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Red dwarf · +6

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 1.4 million 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 M — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 9.4 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Hydra.
  • 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 deep orange-red (B−V 1.5) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.

By the numbers

  • Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 3720 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

What's in a name

  • Its catalogue. The HIP number comes from Hipparcos, the ESA satellite that between 1989 and 1993 pinned down 118,000 stars precisely enough to triangulate their distances.

Properties

absmag
-10.57
bv
1.547
constellation
Hya
luminosity
1472312.5024
mag
9.43
name
HIP 51289
spect
M

About HIP 51289

HIP 51289 is an uncommon star. It sits in the constellation Hya, shines at apparent magnitude 9.43 and has spectral type M.

Its spectrum reads M — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

How to see it

Look for HIP 51289 in the constellation Hya. At apparent magnitude 9.43, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 51289 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 HIP 51289 is an uncommon star

HIP 51289 scores 22 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Cool red M-type star, Deep red star and Red dwarf — 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.