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Rare star 44 EP

Albireo

RA 292.6803° · Dec 27.9597° · 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
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 44

6 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

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

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K3II+... — 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 3 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Cygnus.
  • 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. ≈ 7.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-2.572
bv
1.088
constellation
Cyg
dist ly
434.2956
luminosity
930.6792
mag
3.05
name
Albireo
named
yes
spect
K3II+...

About Albireo

Albireo is a rare star. It lies about 434.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cyg, shines at apparent magnitude 3.05 and has spectral type K3II+....

Its spectrum reads K3II+... — 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 Albireo in the constellation Cyg. At apparent magnitude 3.05, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Albireo 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 Albireo is a rare star

Albireo 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, Has a proper name, 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.