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Common star 19 EP

HD 108118

RA 186.4138° · Dec -57.3343° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
19 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Under the Southern Cross +8
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 19

3 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Under the Southern Cross · +8
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B9.5V — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 8.2 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 16.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.865
bv
0.13
constellation
Cru
dist ly
942.6473
luminosity
39.2645
mag
8.17
name
HD 108118
spect
B9.5V

About HD 108118

HD 108118 is a common star. It lies about 942.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cru, shines at apparent magnitude 8.17 and has spectral type B9.5V.

Its spectrum reads B9.5V — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 108118 in the constellation Cru. At apparent magnitude 8.17, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 108118 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 108118 is a common star

HD 108118 scores 19 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Under the Southern Cross, Hot blue B-type star and Main-sequence 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.