RA 290.9715° · Dec -40.6159° · star
7 more points to reach Epic.
Rukbat is a rare star. It lies about 181.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr, shines at apparent magnitude 3.96 and has spectral type B8V.
Its spectrum reads B8V — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
Look for Rukbat in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 3.96, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.
Like any astronomical target, Rukbat 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.
Rukbat scores 43 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 8 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Has a proper name, Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac, Hot blue B-type star, Main-sequence star and Blue-white 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.