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Epic star 55 EP

Procyon

RA 114.8255° · Dec 5.2250° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
55 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Brilliant (mag < 1) +18
  • Nearby (<25 ly) +12
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Binary star +6
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 55

23 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Nearby (<25 ly) · +12
  • Brilliant (mag < 1) · +18
  • Binary star · +6
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

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 F5IV-V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.

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 0.4 it is one of the brightest points in the night sky — impossible to miss, over in Canis Minor.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around January — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. A multi-generation starship could one day attempt the crossing.

Properties

absmag
2.671
binary
yes
bv
0.432
constellation
CMi
dist ly
11.4618
luminosity
7.4405
mag
0.4
name
Procyon
named
yes
spect
F5IV-V

About Procyon

Procyon is an epic star. It lies about 11.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation CMi, shines at apparent magnitude 0.4 and has spectral type F5IV-V.

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 Procyon in the constellation CMi. At apparent magnitude 0.4, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Procyon 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 Procyon is an epic star

Procyon scores 55 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 23 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Star, Nearby (<25 ly), Brilliant (mag < 1), Binary star, Has a proper name, Yellow-white F-type star and Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) — 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.