← Back to dex
Common star 20 EP

36 UMa

RA 157.6569° · Dec 55.9805° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 5 badges
20 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 20

2 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F8V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 4.8 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Ursa Major.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around February — 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. ≈ 732.5 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
4.287
bv
0.541
constellation
UMa
dist ly
41.6814
luminosity
1.6796
mag
4.82
name
36 UMa
spect
F8V

About 36 UMa

36 UMa is a common star. It lies about 41.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 4.82 and has spectral type F8V.

Its spectrum reads F8V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for 36 UMa in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 4.82, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 36 UMa 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 36 UMa is a common star

36 UMa scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Yellow-white F-type star and Main-sequence 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.