Big and small, near and far

My favourite observations allow me to make comparisons: similar objects at different distances, or objects of different sizes at the same distance. The ‘sugar spoon’ asterism . The brighter of the two, Xi Sagittarii, is a K-type orange giant, 415 times as bright as our Sun, lying 370 light-years away. Xi Sagittarii is a bit dimmer as seen from Earth, but that appearance is misleading. This A-type bright giant is more than 3,200 times as bright as the Sun, but it’s also more than five times farther out, at 2,100 light-years.