Uncommon star 23 EP

HD 119243

RA 205.9097° · Dec -60.4355° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges

23 pts · Uncommon

Uncommon 34 pts → Rare

Sun-like G-type star +8
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
Giant star +6
Star +3

Total score 23

11 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

Star · +3
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
Sun-like G-type star · +8
Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G8III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.

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 8.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Centaurus.
Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around April — 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. ≈ 21.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag: 0.793
bv: 1.13
constellation: Cen
dist ly: 1221.5579
luminosity: 41.9566
mag: 8.66
name: HD 119243
spect: G8III

Nearby objects

About HD 119243

HD 119243 is an uncommon star. It lies about 1,221.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cen, shines at apparent magnitude 8.66 and has spectral type G8III.

Its spectrum reads G8III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 119243 in the constellation Cen. At apparent magnitude 8.66, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 119243 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 119243 is an uncommon star

HD 119243 scores 23 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Sun-like G-type star and Giant 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.