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Common star 16 EP

GL Gl 420A

RA 168.8021° · Dec 73.4752° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
16 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Binary star +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 16

6 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary star · +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Orange K-type star · +3

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 K5 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

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 7.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Draco.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around March — 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. ≈ 839.4 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
6.851
binary
yes
bv
1.043
constellation
Dra
dist ly
47.7675
luminosity
0.1583
mag
7.68
name
GL Gl 420A
spect
K5

About GL Gl 420A

GL Gl 420A is a common star. It lies about 47.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Dra, shines at apparent magnitude 7.68 and has spectral type K5.

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 GL Gl 420A in the constellation Dra. At apparent magnitude 7.68, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 420A 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 GL Gl 420A is a common star

GL Gl 420A scores 16 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Binary star, Never sets (northern circumpolar) and Orange K-type 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.