Lalande 21185 -- Red Dwarf in Ursa Major
Lalande 21185 -- An Easy Red Dwarf
The star Lalande 21185 has been on my observing list for over a year.  Somehow, I had
not got around to it until this morning.  

Lalande 21185 is the brightest Red Dwarf star observable in the northern hemisphere.  
Shining at magnitude 7.5, it is an easy object to find in binoculars.  Red Dwarfs are a very
abundant type of stars in the Universe but are far smaller/dimmer than our sun and even
more so since they emit most of their light in the infrared.  Lalande 21185 only appears
as bright as it does because of its closeness to our Solar System (8.3 light years).  Only
five other star-systems are closer to us than Lalande 21185.

Although, Lalande 21185 resides in the Great Bear, I would recommend star hopping to it
from 46 Leonis Minoris, the easternmost of the three stars that make up the Small Lion
constellation.  It will save you a lot of time.  I find Lalande 21185 more orange than red  -- do
you?