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Rare star 37 EP

HD 104298

RA 180.1359° · Dec -59.9564° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
37 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Bright giant +12
  • Under the Southern Cross +8
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
Total score 37

13 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Under the Southern Cross · +8
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Bright giant · +12

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G6II/III — 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 8.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Crux.
  • 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 30.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.296
bv
1.056
constellation
Cru
dist ly
1716.6106
luminosity
114.3931
mag
8.31
name
HD 104298
spect
G6II/III

About HD 104298

HD 104298 is a rare star. It lies about 1,716.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cru, shines at apparent magnitude 8.31 and has spectral type G6II/III.

Its spectrum reads G6II/III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 104298 in the constellation Cru. At apparent magnitude 8.31, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 104298 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 104298 is a rare star

HD 104298 scores 37 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Under the Southern Cross, Sun-like G-type star and Bright giant — 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.