About HD 96950
HD 96950 is a common star. It sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 9.07 and has spectral type G8IV.
Its spectrum reads G8IV — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Common star 20 EP
HD 96950
RA 167.6642° · Dec 58.8935° · star
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Sun-like G-type star +8
- Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
- Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
- Star +3
Total score 20
2 more points to reach Uncommon.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
- Sun-like G-type star · +8
- Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 2 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 G8IV — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own 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.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 9.1 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Ursa Major.
- Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around March — 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) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.
- Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.
Properties
- absmag
- -10.93
- bv
- 0.993
- constellation
- UMa
- luminosity
- 2051162.1788
- mag
- 9.07
- name
- HD 96950
- spect
- G8IV
How to see it
Look for HD 96950 in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 9.07, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HD 96950 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 96950 is a common star
HD 96950 scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Sun-like G-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.