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Rare star 36 EP

21The Lyr

RA 289.0921° · Dec 38.1337° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
36 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Bright giant +12
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 36

14 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

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

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K0II — 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 Lyra.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • 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. ≈ 14.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-2.684
bv
1.258
constellation
Lyr
dist ly
832.0305
luminosity
1031.8106
mag
4.35
name
21The Lyr
spect
K0II

About 21The Lyr

21The Lyr is a rare star. It lies about 832 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Lyr, shines at apparent magnitude 4.35 and has spectral type K0II.

Its spectrum reads K0II — 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 21The Lyr in the constellation Lyr. At apparent magnitude 4.35, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 21The Lyr 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 21The Lyr is a rare star

21The Lyr scores 36 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 14 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

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