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Uncommon star 24 EP

GL Gl 11A

RA 3.3127° · Dec 69.3269° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
24 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Binary star +6
  • Red dwarf +6
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
Total score 24

10 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary star · +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Red dwarf · +6

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 M6 — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

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 12.5 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Cepheus.
  • 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 September — 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. ≈ 1.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
10.981
binary
yes
bv
1.4
constellation
Cep
dist ly
65.3489
luminosity
0.0035
mag
12.49
name
GL Gl 11A
spect
M6

About GL Gl 11A

GL Gl 11A is an uncommon star. It lies about 65.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cep, shines at apparent magnitude 12.49 and has spectral type M6.

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 GL Gl 11A in the constellation Cep. At apparent magnitude 12.49, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 11A 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 GL Gl 11A is an uncommon star

GL Gl 11A scores 24 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Binary star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Cool red M-type star and Red dwarf — 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.