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Rare star 37 EP

Altais

RA 288.1384° · Dec 67.6615° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
37 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
Total score 37

13 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G9III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • 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. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 3.1 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Draco.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around July — 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. ≈ 1.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.694
bv
0.99
constellation
Dra
dist ly
97.4182
luminosity
45.9621
mag
3.07
name
Altais
named
yes
spect
G9III

About Altais

Altais is a rare star. It lies about 97.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Dra, shines at apparent magnitude 3.07 and has spectral type G9III.

Its spectrum reads G9III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for Altais in the constellation Dra. At apparent magnitude 3.07, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Altais 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 Altais is a rare star

Altais scores 37 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Has a proper name, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Sun-like G-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.