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HD 164595

"HD" stands for the Henry Draper Catalogue, which allowed me to look up the associated star. It is also listed in the ESA 1997 Hipparcos catalogue as 88194. Its coordinates are RA = 18h 0m 39s, Dec = 29d 34' 11" (Epoch 2000.0). Its a fairly bright star, just below visual detection of the average human eye, although it might just be visible to a sharp-eyed individual under very dark and clear skies.

Its a 0.99 solar mass G star about 6.3 Gyr old with a hot gas giant orbiting in a very close orbit. You couldn't ask for a better SETI candidate. And its only 94 ly away.

You can get a good look at it using the POSS plates online, in a variety of color emulsions. Its the brightest star within a half degree, so it should be easy to locate even in a rich field. The website below allows you to pick your window size, color, and coordinates and imagery dataset. Pick the GIF imagery (NOT the FITS) and SIMBAD options, and leave the HST options blank.

There doesn't seem to be much there. The data describes an eerily sunlike star, almost a match to Sol, and quite nearby, although my deep star chart identifies it as a binary. There doesn't seem to be anything particularly interesting in the field, just a few faint galaxies and stars, nothing that sticks out particularly. Of course, the star may have absolutely nothing to do with the alleged signal.

http://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_form?target=HD+164595&resolver=SIMBAD

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