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Trash star 11 EP

HD 102809

RA 177.5604° · Dec 13.0137° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
11 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • White A-type star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 11

4 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A2 — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

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 8.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Leo.
  • 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 7.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 658.8 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
2.921
bv
0.229
constellation
Leo
dist ly
421.9353
luminosity
5.9102
mag
8.48
name
HD 102809
spect
A2

Nearby objects

About HD 102809

HD 102809 is a trash star. It lies about 421.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Leo, shines at apparent magnitude 8.48 and has spectral type A2.

Its spectrum reads A2 — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HD 102809 in the constellation Leo. At apparent magnitude 8.48, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 102809 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 102809 is a trash star

HD 102809 scores 11 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, On the zodiac and White A-type 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.