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Uncommon star 26 EP

8Nu 3CMa

RA 99.4726° · Dec -18.2375° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
26 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Bright giant +12
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 26

8 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Bright giant · +12

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K0II/III — 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 4.4 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Canis Major.
  • 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 December — 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. ≈ 7.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.136
bv
1.137
constellation
CMa
dist ly
421.3903
luminosity
247.9705
mag
4.42
name
8Nu 3CMa
spect
K0II/III

About 8Nu 3CMa

8Nu 3CMa is an uncommon star. It lies about 421.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation CMa, shines at apparent magnitude 4.42 and has spectral type K0II/III.

Its spectrum reads K0II/III — 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 8Nu 3CMa in the constellation CMa. At apparent magnitude 4.42, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 8Nu 3CMa 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 8Nu 3CMa is an uncommon star

8Nu 3CMa scores 26 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Orange K-type star and Bright giant — 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.