List of brightest stars

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This article is about apparent magnitude. For absolute magnitude, see List of most luminous stars.

Bright stars are bright because they have high luminosities and/or they are nearby. Below are the 91 brightest individual stars as seen from Earth in visible wavelengths (apparent magnitude less than or equal to +2.50). The number of observable stars increases rapidly as the magnitude increases[1], so a more inclusive list would be long indeed. The sky has been mapped almost completely up to +11 in visible wavelengths, and continuing surveys are cataloging much fainter objects.

For comparison, the non-stellar objects in our Solar System that have maximum visible magnitudes less than or equal to +2.50 are the Moon (−12.9), Venus (−4.6), Jupiter (−2.9), Mars (−2.9), Mercury (−1.9), and Saturn (−0.2).

The exact order of this list of stars is not completely well-defined because of the following reasons:

Multiple stars are listed individually here when the magnitude difference between them is less than five. Some other lists report the brightness of all the component stars combined. For example, the combined magnitude for Alpha Centauri is −0.27 (3rd), Capella is 0.08 (6th), and Acrux is 0.77 (13th).
There are statistical variations in measured values.
Some stars are actually variable stars (as indicated with var).

	V Magnitude	Bayer Designation	Proper name	Distance (ly)	External link
0	−26.73		Sun (Sol)	0.000 016
1	−1.47	α CMa	Sirius	0008.6	Sirius on SIMBAD
2	−0.72	α Car	Canopus	0310	Canopus on SIMBAD
3	−0.04 var	α Boo	Arcturus	0037	Arcturus on SIMBAD
4	−0.01	α₁ Cen	Alpha Centauri A	0004.4	Alpha Centauri A on SIMBAD
5	0.03	α Lyr	Vega	0025	Vega on SIMBAD
6	0.112	β Ori	Rigel	0770	Rigel on SIMBAD
7	0.34	α CMi	Procyon	0011	Procyon on SIMBAD
8	0.50	α Eri	Achernar	0140	Achernar on SIMBAD
9	0.58 var	α Ori	Betelgeuse	0640	Betelgeuse
10	0.60	β Cen	Hadar (Agena)	0530	Hadar (Agena) on SIMBAD
11	0.71	α₁ Aur	Capella A	0042	Capella A on SIMBAD
12	0.77	α Aql	Altair	0017	Altair on SIMBAD
13	0.85 var	α Tau	Aldebaran	0065	Aldebaran on SIMBAD
14	0.96	α₂ Aur	Capella B	0042	Capella B on SIMBAD
15	1.04	α Vir	Spica	0260	Spica on SIMBAD
16	1.09	α Sco	Antares	0600	Antares on SIMBAD
17	1.15	β Gem	Pollux	0034	Pollux on SIMBAD
18	1.16	α PsA	Fomalhaut	0025	Fomalhaut on SIMBAD
19	1.25	α Cyg	Deneb	1550	Deneb on SIMBAD
20	1.30	β Cru	Mimosa	0350	Mimosa on SIMBAD
21	1.33	α₂ Cen	Alpha Centauri B	0004.4	Alpha Centauri B on SIMBAD
22	1.35	α Leo	Regulus	0077	Regulus on SIMBAD
23	1.40	α₁ Cru	Acrux A	0320	Acrux A on SIMBAD
24	1.51	ε CMa	Adara	0430	Adara on SIMBAD
25	1.62	λ Sco	Shaula	0700	Shaula on SIMBAD
26	1.63	γ Cru	Gacrux	0088	Gacrux on SIMBAD
27	1.64	γ Ori	Bellatrix	0240	Bellatrix on SIMBAD
28	1.68	β Tau	El Nath	0130	El Nath on SIMBAD
29	1.70	β Car	Miaplacidus	0110	Miaplacidus on SIMBAD
30	1.70	ε Ori	Alnilam	1300	Alnilam on SIMBAD
31	1.70	ζ₁ Ori	Alnitak A	0820	Alnitak A on SIMBAD
32	1.74	α Gru	Al Na'ir	0100	Al Na'ir on SIMBAD
33	1.76	ε UMa	Alioth	0081	Alioth on SIMBAD
34	1.78	γ₁² Vel	Gamma² Velorum A	0840	Gamma² Velorum on SIMBAD
35	1.80	ε Sgr	Kaus Australis	0140	Kaus Australis on SIMBAD
36	1.82	α Per	Mirfak	0590	Mirfak on SIMBAD
37	1.84	δ CMa	Wezen	1800	Wezen on SIMBAD
38	1.85	η UMa	Benetnasch (Alkaid)	0100	Benetnasch (Alkaid) on SIMBAD
39	1.86	θ Sco	Sargas	0270	Sargas on SIMBAD
40	1.87	α₁ UMa	Dubhe A	0120	Dubhe on SIMBAD
41	1.90	γ Gem	Alhena	0100	Alhena on SIMBAD
42	1.91	α Pav	Peacock	0180	Peacock on SIMBAD
43	1.92	α TrA	Atria	0420	Atria on SIMBAD
44	1.96	α₁ Gem	Castor A	0052	Castor A on SIMBAD
45	1.98	β CMa	Murzim	0500	Murzim on SIMBAD
46	2.00	α Hya	Alphard	0180	Alphard on SIMBAD
47	2.00	α Ari	Hamal	0066	Hamal on SIMBAD
48	2.01 var	α UMi	Polaris	0430	Polaris on SIMBAD
49	2.03	δ₁ Vel	Delta Velorum A	0080	Delta Velorum on SIMBAD
50	2.04	β Cet	Deneb Kaitos	0096	Deneb Kaitos on SIMBAD
51	2.05	κ Ori	Saiph	0720	Saiph on SIMBAD
52	2.06	σ Sgr	Nunki	0220	Nunki on SIMBAD
53	2.06	θ Cen	Menkent	0061	Menkent on SIMBAD
54	2.06	α And	Alpheratz	0097	Alpheratz on SIMBAD
55	2.06	β And	Mirach	0200	Mirach on SIMBAD
56	2.08	β UMi	Kochab	0130	Kochab on SIMBAD
57	2.09	α₂ Cru	Acrux B	0320	Acrux B on SIMBAD
58	2.10	α Oph	Ras Alhague	0047	Ras Alhague on SIMBAD
59	2.12 var	β Per	Algol	0093	Algol on SIMBAD
60	2.13	β Gru	Beta Gruis	0170	Beta Gruis on SIMBAD
61	2.14	β Leo	Denebola	0036	Denebola on SIMBAD
62	2.21	ζ Pup	Naos	1400	Zeta Puppis on SIMBAD
63	2.23	λ Vel	Lambda Velorum	0570	Lambda Velorum on SIMBAD
64	2.23	γ Dra	Etamin	0150	Etamin on SIMBAD
65	2.24	α₁ CrB	Gemma A / Alphecca A	0075	Alphecca on SIMBAD
66	2.24	γ Cyg	Sadr	1500	Sadr on SIMBAD
67	2.25	α Cas	Schedar	0230	Schedar on SIMBAD
68	2.25	ι Car	Aspidiske	0690	Aspidiske on SIMBAD
69	2.26	γ₁ And	Almach A	0350	Almach on SIMBAD
70	2.27	ζ₁ UMa	Mizar A	0078	Mizar A on SIMBAD
71	2.27	β Cas	Caph	0054	Caph on SIMBAD
72	2.27	ε Cen	Epsilon Centauri	0380	Epsilon Centauri on SIMBAD
73	2.28	γ₁ Leo	Algieba A	0130	Algieba on SIMBAD
74	2.28	α Lup	Alpha Lupi	0550	Alpha Lupi on SIMBAD
75	2.29	δ Sco	Dschubba	0400	Dschubba on SIMBAD
76	2.29	ε Sco	Wei	0065	Wei on SIMBAD
77	2.32	η Cen	Eta Centauri	0310	Eta Centauri on SIMBAD
78	2.35	β UMa	Merak	0079	Merak on SIMBAD
79	2.37	α Phe	Ankaa	0077	Ankaa on SIMBAD
80	2.38	κ Sco	Girtab	0460	Girtab on SIMBAD
81	2.39	γ Cas	Gamma Cassiopeiae	0610	Gamma Cassiopeiae on SIMBAD
82	2.40	ε Peg	Enif	0670	Enif on SIMBAD
83	2.40	η CMa	Aludra	3200	Aludra on SIMBAD
84	2.4	ε₁ Car	Avior A	0630	Avior on SIMBAD
85	2.42	β Peg	Scheat	0200	Scheat on SIMBAD
86	2.43	γ UMa	Phecda	0084	Phecda on SIMBAD
87	2.44	α Cep	Alderamin	0049	Alderamin on SIMBAD
88	2.46	κ Vel	Kappa Velorum	0540	Kappa Velorum on SIMBAD
89	2.49	α Peg	Markab	0140	Markab on SIMBAD
90	2.50	ε Cyg	Gienah	0072	Gienah on SIMBAD

[edit] See also

Lists of stars
List of nearest stars
List of most luminous stars
Historical brightest stars: the brightest star in Earth's night sky at each period within the last or next 5 million years

[edit] External links

List of brightest stars

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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