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Rare star 44 EP

49Sig Oph

RA 261.6287° · Dec 4.1404° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
44 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Bright giant +12
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Deep red star +8
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 44

6 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K3IIvar — 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 bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.

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 4.3 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Ophiuchus.
  • 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 June — 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. ≈ 15.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-2.866
bv
1.48
constellation
Oph
dist ly
900.9834
luminosity
1220.1128
mag
4.34
name
49Sig Oph
spect
K3IIvar

About 49Sig Oph

49Sig Oph is a rare star. It lies about 901 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Oph, shines at apparent magnitude 4.34 and has spectral type K3IIvar.

Its spectrum reads K3IIvar — 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 49Sig Oph in the constellation Oph. At apparent magnitude 4.34, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 49Sig Oph 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 49Sig Oph is a rare star

49Sig Oph scores 44 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Orange K-type star, Bright giant, Deep red star and Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) — 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.