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Rare star 41 EP

HR 4180

RA 159.8267° · Dec -55.6033° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
41 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Bright giant +12
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Star +3
Total score 41

9 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G2II — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.

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 4.3 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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 March — 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. ≈ 14.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-2.766
bv
1.025
constellation
Vel
dist ly
840.6084
luminosity
1112.7561
mag
4.29
name
HR 4180
spect
G2II

About HR 4180

HR 4180 is a rare star. It lies about 840.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 4.29 and has spectral type G2II.

Its spectrum reads G2II — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HR 4180 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 4.29, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 4180 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 HR 4180 is a rare star

HR 4180 scores 41 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Sun-like G-type star, Bright giant and Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) — 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.