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Uncommon star 23 EP

Mönch

RA 221.8864° · Dec -0.2815° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
23 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 23

11 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K0III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • 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 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 May — 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. ≈ 1.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
5.534
bv
0.781
constellation
Vir
dist ly
103.4104
luminosity
0.5326
mag
8.04
name
Mönch
named
yes
spect
K0III

About Mönch

Mönch is an uncommon star. It lies about 103.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vir, shines at apparent magnitude 8.04 and has spectral type K0III.

Its spectrum reads K0III — 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 Mönch in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 8.04, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, Mönch 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 Mönch is an uncommon star

Mönch 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 5 science badges — Star, Has a proper name, On the zodiac, Orange K-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.