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Uncommon star 28 EP

Baten Kaitos

RA 27.8651° · Dec -10.3350° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
28 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 28

6 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K2III — 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 giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.

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 3.7 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Cetus.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around October — 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. ≈ 4.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.548
bv
1.136
constellation
Cet
dist ly
234.9827
luminosity
144.278
mag
3.74
name
Baten Kaitos
named
yes
spect
K2III

About Baten Kaitos

Baten Kaitos is an uncommon star. It lies about 235 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cet, shines at apparent magnitude 3.74 and has spectral type K2III.

Its spectrum reads K2III — 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 Baten Kaitos in the constellation Cet. At apparent magnitude 3.74, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Baten Kaitos 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 Baten Kaitos is an uncommon star

Baten Kaitos scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Has a proper name, Orange K-type star and Giant 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.