How far away is the farthest star you can see with the naked eye? Given optimal viewing conditions.

Thanks.

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"Most editorials are written by people that love to argue but got kicked off debate team for not making any sense." -Seanbaby

From this thread Question about visible stars: From the same thread:

Thanks.

I ask because recently a friend told me that most of the stars you see in the sky have already died. I'd heard it before and even before I took an interest in astronomy it sounded fishy. But I was pretty positive that all the stars visible to the naked eye are still around since they're all in our galaxy, and the last estimate of how large our galaxy is that I saw said it was about 100,000 light years across.

Thanks again.

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"Most editorials are written by people that love to argue but got kicked off debate team for not making any sense." -Seanbaby

:-k Hmmm . . . now that could make for an interesting project. Figure out which stars we can see that have already died!

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"As I lay beneath the Southern Cross, the stars tell more than I could" . . . David Meece

Most of the visible stars relatively close. Sure 50-100 light years is far away, but on an astronomical scale that's nothing. Stars aren't created and destroyed very often on a scale of 100s of years, so I'm guessing that not much has happened to nearby stars that we haven't seen.

If you have a dark site, and you know where to look, you can see the Andromeda Galaxy with the naked eye. IIRC, that is about 2.5 million light years away, and is generally considered to be the most distant object visible without optical aid. However, some people have seen more distant galaxies from extremely dark sites.

Those in the southern hemisphere can easily see the Megallanic Clouds, which are dwarf galaxies that are much closer to the Milky Way than Andromeda is.

I would say with 99.9% certainty that none of the stars we can see with the naked eye have died, unless Rho Cassiopia or Eta Carina have exploded;
can you even see Eta Carina with the naked eye these days?

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New Orion's Arm Site . The Starlark . Against a Diamond Sky (OA Novella Collection) . OA Flickr set

I'm still hoping for Betelguese. But I'm not holding my breath.
Current magnitude 6.21, so not quite.