|
Hi All,
Adding a few more to the list of 14 K-type naked eye dwarf stars that must be sufficiently bright to be visible to the naked-eye in the absence of any brighter companion we have:
Gliese 570 A (Libra)
36 Ophiuchi A+B+C
Gliese 783A (Libra)
Gliese 105A (Cetus)
107 Piscium
Chi Draconis B
12 Ophiuchi
So the list is now 23 naked-eye K-dwarfs, but nearly all of these are very faint stars and most are only barely visible naked eye, comprising, at best, 0.3% of the naked-eye stars. They are rare to see!
As a matter of interest, within 10pc of the Sun (32.6ly) there are in total:
4 A-type stars (Sirius, Vega, Altair, Formalhaut)
8 F-type stars
19 G-type stars of which the Sun (I think) is intrinsically 3rd brightest
43 K-type stars, and
>263 M-type stars
> 22 white dwarfs
There are no stars of true giant (III) or supergiant (I) luminosity class. Excepting the white dwarfs, they are all main-sequence stars (V) with only a couple displaying in their spectra the possibility of being evolving sub-giants (IV) (Procyon is an example).
So, of the total of at least 359 stars (probably more like 380-400 counting the dimmest undiscovered red and white dwarfs), only 14 are brighter than the Sun and 95.8% are dimmer.
That makes the Sun look pretty impressive don't it!
Best,
Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T
|