RA 56.8712° · Dec 24.1051° · star
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1 more point to reach Epic.
Alcyone is a rare star. It lies about 403.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tau, shines at apparent magnitude 2.85 and has spectral type B7III.
Its spectrum reads B7III — 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 Alcyone in the constellation Tau. At apparent magnitude 2.85, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.
Like any astronomical target, Alcyone 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.
Alcyone scores 49 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 8 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Has a proper name, On the zodiac, Hot blue B-type star, Giant star, Blue-white star 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.