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Rare star 39 EP

Alula Australis B

RA 169.5468° · Dec 31.5288° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
39 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Binary star +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 39

11 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Binary star · +6
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Not one star but two. It is a binary: two stars orbiting a shared centre of mass. More than half of all the 'stars' you can see are actually multiple systems.

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G0 Ve — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

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 4.8 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Ursa Major.
  • 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 March — 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. ≈ 597 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
4.711
binary
yes
constellation
UMa
dist ly
33.9747
luminosity
1.1366
mag
4.8
name
Alula Australis B
named
yes
spect
G0 Ve

About Alula Australis B

Alula Australis B is a rare star. It lies about 34 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 4.8 and has spectral type G0 Ve.

It is a binary: two stars orbiting a shared centre of mass. More than half of all the 'stars' you can see are actually multiple systems.

How to see it

Look for Alula Australis B in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 4.8, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Alula Australis B 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 Alula Australis B is a rare star

Alula Australis B scores 39 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Binary star, Has a proper name, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Sun-like G-type star and Main-sequence 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.