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Arcturus: Orange Giant
What's in a Name: || Greek for "Bearkeeper". The bear is the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear).
|Claim to Fame:|| 4th brightest star in the sky. The reddish light of Arcturus striking a photoelectric cell marked the beginning of the 1934 Chicago World's Fair.
|Type of Star:|| Orange Giant (K2 III Spectral Class),
surface temperature 4400K. Fusing helium to carbon and oxygen in its core.
|How Far Away:|| 37 light years away
|How Big:|| 18 times larger than the sun, 4 times the sun's mass
|How Bright:|| 105 times the sun's luminosity (Mv=-0.3)
|Where to View:|| Brightest star in the constellation Bootes, the Herdsman (Star Map).
|When to View:|| April through August from Northern middle latitudes
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The Summer 2010 issue of The Earth Scientist
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