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Its story

12 Aquilae glows with the steady orange of a K-type giant, a quiet ember suspended 144 light-years away on the southern flank of the Eagle, where the Milky Way thickens toward its heart. The light arriving tonight left the star in the early 1880s, when refracting telescopes were just beginning to chart the summer sky. It crosses a dust-rich field that most observers only notice through binoculars.