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Uncommon star 28 EP

Phi1Lup

RA 230.4516° · Dec -36.2614° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
28 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Deep red star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 28

6 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Giant star · +6
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K5III — 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 3.6 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Lupus.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • 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. ≈ 4.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.06
bv
1.534
constellation
Lup
dist ly
275.005
luminosity
231.2065
mag
3.57
name
Phi1Lup
spect
K5III

About Phi1Lup

Phi1Lup is an uncommon star. It lies about 275 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Lup, shines at apparent magnitude 3.57 and has spectral type K5III.

Its spectrum reads K5III — 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 Phi1Lup in the constellation Lup. At apparent magnitude 3.57, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Phi1Lup 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 Phi1Lup is an uncommon star

Phi1Lup scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Orange K-type star, Giant 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.