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Common star 18 EP

HIP 56936

RA 175.0836° · Dec 67.2590° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
18 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Deep red star +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 18

4 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K4 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

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 12.2 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Draco.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • 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. ≈ 1.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 119 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
10.357
bv
1.447
constellation
Dra
dist ly
76.2223
luminosity
0.0063
mag
12.2
name
HIP 56936
spect
K4

About HIP 56936

HIP 56936 is a common star. It lies about 76.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Dra, shines at apparent magnitude 12.2 and has spectral type K4.

Its spectrum reads K4 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HIP 56936 in the constellation Dra. At apparent magnitude 12.2, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 56936 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 56936 is a common star

HIP 56936 scores 18 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Orange K-type star and Deep red star — 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.