Common star 17 EP

HD 120603

RA 207.6095° · Dec 2.5128° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges

17 pts · Common

Common 22 pts → Uncommon

Deep red star +8
Star +3
On the zodiac +3
Orange K-type star +3

Total score 17

5 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

Star · +3
On the zodiac · +3
Orange K-type star · +3
Deep red star · +8

Trivia

Hard to believe

True brightness. It pours out about 3 million 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 K5 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

Find it in the sky

How to spot it. At magnitude 8.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Virgo.
Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around April — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out deep orange-red (B−V 1.6) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.

By the numbers

Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 3680 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

What's in a name

Its catalogue. The HD number is from the Henry Draper Catalogue, in which Annie Jump Cannon personally classified the spectra of nearly 400,000 stars — still the largest such feat by one person.

Properties

absmag: -11.36
bv: 1.576
constellation: Vir
luminosity: 3047894.9896
mag: 8.64
name: HD 120603
spect: K5

Nearby objects

About HD 120603

HD 120603 is a common star. It sits in the constellation Vir, shines at apparent magnitude 8.64 and has spectral type K5.

Its spectrum reads K5 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 120603 in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 8.64, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 120603 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 120603 is a common star

HD 120603 scores 17 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, On the zodiac, Orange K-type star and Deep red 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.