Observed Arcturus on July 31, 2022 from Bothell, Washington

observation

July 31, 2022. With a distance of 36.7 ± 0.2 light years, the light tonight left Arcturus between August 1985 and February 1986. The world population was about 4.8 billion. In August, Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed in Japan and became the worst single-aircraft disaster in history. The Titanic was discovered. In September Super Mario Bros. was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Later that year the the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted, killing an estimated 23,000 people, and in December Dian Fossey is found murdered.

Deception Pass Park Brochure.pdf (parks.wa.gov) With dramatic headlands, tranquil forests, windswept beaches and quiet meadows, Deception Pass State Park captures your imagination and invites your exploration. Spanning the tips of Whidbey and Fidalgo islands, the park is treasured for its spectacular scenery, rich history and diverse recreational opportunities. Visitors may enjoy fishing, hiking, camping, swimming, boating, photography, beach exploration, scuba diving, learning or simply relaxing.

Arcturus (Wikipedia) Arcturus is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Boötes. With an apparent visual magnitude of −0.05, it is the fourth-brightest star in the night sky, and the brightest in the northern celestial hemisphere. The name Arcturus originated from ancient Greece; it was then cataloged as α Boötis by Johann Bayer in 1603, which is Latinized to Alpha Boötis. Arcturus forms one corner of the Spring Triangle asterism.
1985 (Wikipedia) 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1985th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 985th year of the 2nd millennium, the 85th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1980s decade.
Speed of light (Wikipedia) The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted c, is a universal physical constant that is important in many areas of physics. The speed of light c is exactly equal to 299,792,458 metres per second (approximately 300,000 kilometres per second; 186,000 miles per second; 671 million miles per hour). According to the special theory of relativity, c is the upper limit for the speed at which conventional matter or energy (and thus any signal carrying information) can travel through space.