About HIP 61980
HIP 61980 is a trash star. It sits in the constellation Com, shines at apparent magnitude 11.85 and has spectral type R.
Its spectrum reads R — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
Trash star 3 EP
HIP 61980
RA 190.5194° · Dec 31.1016° · star
Score breakdown
· 1 badgeTrash 15 pts → Common
- Star +3
Total score 3
12 more points to reach Common.
Badges
- Star · +3
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 155.6 thousand 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 R — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 11.8 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Coma Berenices.
- 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 April — that's when to go looking.
What's in a name
- Its catalogue. The HIP number comes from Hipparcos, the ESA satellite that between 1989 and 1993 pinned down 118,000 stars precisely enough to triangulate their distances.
Properties
- absmag
- -8.15
- constellation
- Com
- luminosity
- 158489.3192
- mag
- 11.85
- name
- HIP 61980
- spect
- R
How to see it
Look for HIP 61980 in the constellation Com. At apparent magnitude 11.85, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HIP 61980 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 61980 is a trash star
HIP 61980 scores 3 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 1 science badge — 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.