Image source: Finding stars on night sky can be difficult sometimes. Not just because there are gazillion stars on the sky, but also because some stars are brighter than others. This morning I came up with an idea of defining 15 brightest stars on night sky with their magnitudes, co-ordinates as well as the constellation they belong to. I hope this helps you to find the stars you are interested in. Notice that some of the stars and constellations are described more detailed behind the links. Articles contain also tips for finding those stars and constellations. Let’s assume that you are interested in finding Procyon. In this case, just click the link on Procyon and you can read more about finding the star.

As said above, stars on sky differ mostly from their brightness. Hipparkhos who lived in ancient Greece, categorized stars based on their brightness. Hipparkhos defined magnitudes, the six levels of brightness. Magnitude one represents the brightest stars and magnitude six represents the dimmest stars. The system Hipparkhos created was so useful that it is still in use today, even though few improvements have been made to it.

In optimal conditions one can see even level six stars by the naked eye. This usually requires a clear sky, high visibility and no artificial lightning surrounding. In order to observe even dimmer stars, a telescope or binoculars is needed. The system Hipparkhos created and which is now further developed, is based on logarithmic scale. With most powerful telescopes one can observe even the dimmest objects (magnitude 29 stars) which are 600 million times dimmer than those we can observe by the naked eye (magnitude 6) in good conditions.

As astronomy developed from the ancient times, it became clear that names are not enough to distinct stars from each other. On 1603 German astronomer Johann Mayer gave a Creek letter to each star. The letter was added to the end of each Latin named constellation so that the brightest star of a constellation was named with the first letter Alpha. For example, Betelgeuse is the brightest star in constellation Orion. It was named Alpha Orion, which means the brightest star in Orion. The next brightest star was named with the second letter, Beta. In case of Orion it is Rigel, which was named Beta Orion, the second brightest star of constellation Orion. Mr. Bayer did not always follow this rule when he named the stars. For example, in constellation Ursa Major Epsilon star (Alioth) is brighter than Alpha star (Dubhe).

There are also other star naming systems, such as the one created by John Flamsteed. In his system Flamsteed named all stars that can be seen by the naked eye with an Arabic number. This system is in use with stars that have no Creek letter added. An example of the usage of Flamsteed’s system is 61 Cygni, as star in constellation Cygni. For more information on these naming systems I recommend searching in the Internet.

Below you can find the 15 brightest stars with their constellation, magnitude and coordinates.

Position Star Constellation Magnitude Coordinates
1 Sirius Canis Major -1.4 R.A: 6h 45.2m Decl: -16° 43´
2 Canopus Carina -0.6 R.A: 6h 24m Decl: -52° 42´
3 Alpha Centauri Centaurus -0.3 R.A: 14h 39.7m Decl: -60° 50´
4 Arcturus Boötes -0.1 R.A: 14h 15.7m Decl: +19° 11´
5 Vega Lyra 0.0 R.A: 18h 36.9m Decl: +38° 47´
6 Capella Auriga 0.1 R.A: 5h 16.7m Decl: +46° 00´
7 Rigel Orion 0.2 R.A: 5h 14.5m Decl: -8° 12´
8 Procyon Canis Minor 0.4 R.A: 7h 39m Decl: +5° 14´
9 Achernar Eridanus 0.5 R.A: 1h 37.7m Decl: -57° 14´
10 Betelgeuze Orion 0.5 R.A: 5h 55.2m Decl: +7° 24´
11 Agena Centaurus 0.6 R.A: 14h 3.8m Decl: -60° 22´
12 Altair Aquila 0.8 R.A: 19h 50.8m Decl: +8° 52´
13 Acrux Crux 0.8 R.A: 12h 26.6m Decl: -63° 06´
14 Aldebaran Taurus 0.9 R.A: 4h 35.9m Decl: +16° 31´
15 Apica Virgo 1.0 R.A: 13h 25.2m Decl: -11° 10´

Image source.

This article was written by Marko Pyhajarvi and its original location is in HomeboyAstronomy.Com astronomy blog. For more great astronomy articles, please visit HomeboyAstronomy.Com!

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