Stargazing is truly an exciting activity. Even without a telescope, you can find the brightest stars located at different distances from our planet.
The brightest stars, observed from the Earth, we have collected in today's top ten. They are all ranked by apparent magnitude, which is a measure of brightness celestial body. Naturally, we do not include the Sun in this top ten, considering the stars that we observe exclusively at night.
10. Betelgeuse
This star from the constellation Orion is located at a distance of 495 to 650 light years. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant and is much larger than the Sun. If we placed a star in the place of our luminary, it would fill the orbit of Mars. Betelgeuse is visible in the Northern Hemisphere.
9. Achernar
A bright blue star in the constellation Eridanus is visible from the southern hemisphere of the planet. Achernar's mass is 6-8 times that of the sun. The star is 144 light years away from Earth. Among all, this one has the least spherical shape, because. rotates very quickly around its own axis.
8. Procyon
The star in the constellation Canis Minor is 11.4 light years away from Earth. The name of the star translated from Greek means “before the dog.” Procyon can be observed in the Northern Hemisphere.
7. Rigel
The star in the constellation Orion is located near the equator. Rigel is located 860 light years from Earth. This is one of the most powerful stars in our Galaxy, its mass is 17 times that of the Sun, and its brightness is 130,000 times.
6. Chapel
The star in the constellation Auriga is almost 41 light years away from Earth. The chapel is visible from the Northern Hemisphere. The peculiarity of this yellow giant is that it is a spectroscopic double star. Each component of the binary star has a mass 2.5 times greater than the Sun.
5. Vega
The star in the constellation Lyra is clearly visible in the Northern Hemisphere. Vega is 25 light years away from Earth. This star has been well studied by astronomers, because located relatively close to solar system.
4. Arcturus
This orange giant is the most bright Star Northern Hemisphere. Arcturus is 34 light years from Earth. From Russia, the star is visible all year round. Arcturus brighter than the sun 110 times.
3. Toliman (Alpha Centauri)
The closest star to the Sun is 4.3 light years away from Earth. A star consists of three components - a binary system? Centauri A and? Centauri B, as well as a red dwarf invisible without a telescope. It is believed that Toliman will be the first target for interstellar flights.
2. Canopus
The star in the constellation Carina is a yellowish-white supergiant. Canopus is 310 light years away from Earth. The mass of the star is 8-9 times greater than that of the Sun, and its diameter is 65 times greater than the Sun.
1. Sirius
The brightest star is in the constellation Canis Major. Sirius's brightness is due to its relative proximity to Earth (8.6 light years). Sirius is visible from almost all parts globe with the exception of the northernmost regions.
In midsummer, nights in temperate latitudes are still short and light. Not many stars are visible, and those that are visible are often perceived differently than in a completely dark sky. This is understandable, because they are deprived of the unique ambience created by the weaker stars surrounding them. In the twilight sky, the patterns of constellations disappear - completely or partially - and the brightest stars shine alone, like lighthouses in the sea.
In the evening in midsummer, 6 stars of first and zero magnitude are visible in the sky. What kind of stars are these?
In the west, to the left of dawn, there is a star quite high in the sky Arcturus. It is the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere and the fourth brightest star in the entire night sky. Arcturus can be recognized by its characteristic reddish color; if the atmosphere is turbulent, the star flickers quite strongly.
Three other stars can be found in the southern sky. First of all this Vega, main star the small constellation Lyra, which is almost at its zenith on July evenings. Vega is quite a bit inferior in brilliance to Arcturus - to the eye their brilliance seems the same. But Vega is different in color: unlike the orange Arcturus, it is a white star.
To the left of Vega, just as high, you can find a star Deneb. It is not as bright as Vega or Arcturus, but is quite visible in the twilight sky. Deneb is headed by the beautiful constellation Cygnus, whose figure resembles a cross.
The Great Summer Triangle is the main star pattern of summer. On July evenings it is high in the southern sky. Pattern: Stellarium
Below these two stars, about halfway between the zenith and the horizon, there is another star, Altair. Altair is brighter than Deneb, but not as bright as Vega. Together, these stars form a large almost isosceles triangle in the sky, the base of which is Vega and Deneb, and the apex facing the horizon is the star Altair.
The Great Summer Triangle - this is the name of this figure - is the main landmark in the summer sky. It is clearly visible in the sky throughout the first half of autumn, which is why it is often called the summer-autumn triangle. Starting from Vega, Deneb and Altair, you can study in detail all the summer constellations. It must be said that in this part of the sky there are a lot of interesting celestial objects that can be observed with binoculars or small amateur telescopes.
The stars Arcturus, Vega, Deneb and Altair are very clearly visible throughout Russia in summer (except for the far north, where it is still too light in July). The other two stars are not visible everywhere.
The star Capella is far to the north on July evenings. Pattern: Stellarium
If you are north of the latitude of Rostov-on-Don, say in Samara, Moscow or St. Petersburg, then in the north you can see another bright star. This Chapel, the main star of the constellation Auriga. Its brilliance is comparable to that of Arcturus and Vega, and its color is yellow. However, being very low above the horizon, the Chapel shimmers strongly and shimmers in different colors. At the latitude of St. Petersburg in the first half of July, the star is poorly visible, as it floats above the dawn.
Another star is visible in July evenings in the southwest, between Arcturus and the Summer Triangle. But, like Capella, this star is low above the horizon. We are talking about Antares, alpha Scorpio. Antares can be observed south of St. Petersburg. At the latitude of Moscow, the star is very low above the horizon, flickers strongly, and its shine is weakened. Antares is clearly visible only in the south of Russia. There the rich red color of this star catches your eye.
But the list of bright celestial objects that can be seen in the July sky of 2017 does not end there! In the evening twilight, low in the west (under the star Arcturus) a very bright yellowish star is visible, which practically does not flicker. This is a planet Jupiter. Jupiter is much brighter than Vega, Arcturus, and indeed any star in the night sky.
Another “star” is located in the southwest near Antares. Its shine is approximately equal to that of Altair, and its color is matte yellow. This is a planet Saturn.
The Great Summer Triangle, the stars Antares and Arcturus, as well as the planets Saturn and Jupiter - all these celestial bodies are visible in the evenings in July in the southern and western sectors of the sky. The picture is shown for the latitude of Moscow. Pattern: Stellarium
The third bright object is visible in the morning in the east. This is a planet Venus. The brilliance of Venus is phenomenal - it is several times brighter than Jupiter and is visible even in the daytime sky! Like Jupiter, Venus is distinguished by an exceptionally even radiance - it does not flicker and almost never shimmers in different colors. Its color is white.
I hope this little excursion will help you find your way around the summer starry sky and start exploring it! Start by observing these bright stars in the sky. Note their position in the sky, shine and color. Are planets different from stars? If yes, then with what?
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Not only astronomers and romantics love to look at the sky. We all look up to the stars from time to time and admire their eternal beauty. That is why each of us is at least sometimes interested in which star in the sky is the brightest.
The Greek scientist Hipparchus first asked this question, and he proposed his classification 22 centuries ago! He divided the stars into six groups, where the first magnitude stars were the brightest he could observe, and the sixth magnitude were those barely visible to the naked eye.
Needless to say that we are talking about relative brightness, and not about the actual ability to glow? Indeed, in addition to the amount of light produced, the brightness of a star observed from Earth is affected by the distance from this star to the observation site. It seems to us that the brightest star in the sky is the Sun, because it is closest to us. In fact, it is not at all a bright and very small star.
Nowadays, approximately the same system for distinguishing stars by brightness is used, only improved. Vega was taken as the reference point, and the brightness of the remaining stars is measured from its indicator. The brightest stars have a negative index.
So, we will consider exactly those stars that are recognized as the brightest according to the improved Hipparchus scale
10 Betelgeuse (α Orionis)
The red giant, with 17 times the mass of our Sun, rounds out the top 10 brightest night stars.
This is one of the most mysterious stars in the Universe, because it is capable of changing its size, while its density remains unchanged. The color and brightness of the giant varies at different points.
Scientists expect Betelgeuse to explode in the future, but given that the star is located at a huge distance from the Earth (according to some scientists - 500, according to others - 640 light years), this should not affect us. However, for several months the star can be seen in the sky even during the day.
9 Achernar (α Eridani)
A favorite of science fiction writers, a blue star with a mass 8 times greater than that of the Sun looks very impressive and unusual. The star Achernar is flattened so that it resembles a rugby ball or a tasty torpedo melon, and the reason for this is the fantastic rotation speed of more than 300 km per second, approaching the so-called separation speed, at which the centrifugal force becomes identical to the force of gravity.
Around Achernar you can observe a luminous shell of star matter - this is plasma and hot gas, and the orbit of Alpha Eridani is also very unusual. By the way, Achernar is a double star.
This star can only be observed in the Southern Hemisphere.
8 Procyon (α Canis Minor)
One of the two “dog stars” is similar to Sirius in that it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Minor (and Sirius is the brightest star in Canis Major), and in that it is also double.
Procyon A is a pale yellow star about the size of the Sun. It is gradually expanding, and in 10 million years it will become an orange or red giant. According to scientists, the process is already underway, as evidenced by the unprecedented brightness of the star - it is more than 7 times brighter than the sun, although similar in size and spectrum.
Procyon B, its companion, a dim white dwarf, is about the same distance from Procyon A as Uranus is from the Sun.
And there were some mysteries here. Ten years ago, a long-term study of the star was undertaken using an orbiting telescope. Astronomers were eager to get confirmation of their hypotheses. However, the hypotheses were not confirmed, and now scientists are trying to explain what is happening on Procyon in some other way.
Continuing the “dog” theme – the name of the star means “in front of the dog”; this means that Procyon appears in the sky before Sirius.
7 Rigel (β Orionis)
In seventh place in terms of relative (observed by us) brightness is one of the most powerful stars in the Universe with an absolute magnitude of -7, that is, the brightest of the stars located more or less nearby.
It is located 870 light years away, so less bright but closer stars appear brighter to us. Meanwhile, Rigel is 130 thousand times brighter than the Sun and 74 times larger in diameter!
The temperature on Rigel is so high that if something were to be at the same distance from it as the Earth is relative to the Sun, this object would immediately turn into a stellar wind!
Rigel has two companion stars, almost invisible in the bright glow of the blue-white supergiant.
6 Chapel (α Auriga)
Capella ranks third among the brightest stars in the Northern Hemisphere. Of the stars of the first magnitude (the famous Polaris is only of the second magnitude), Capella is located closest to the North Pole.
This is also a double star, and the weaker of the pair is already becoming red, and the brighter is still white, although the hydrogen in its body has obviously already turned into helium, but has not yet ignited.
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The name of the star means Goat, because the Greeks identified it with the goat Amalthea, who suckled Zeus.
5 Vega (α Lyrae)
The brightest of the Sun's neighbors can be observed throughout the entire Northern Hemisphere and almost the entire Southern Hemisphere, except Antarctica.
Vega is beloved by astronomers for being the second most studied star after the Sun. Although there is still a lot of mystery in this “most studied” star. What can we do, the stars are in no hurry to reveal their secrets to us!
Vega's rotation speed is very high (it rotates 137 times faster than the Sun, almost as fast as Achernar), so the star's temperature (and therefore its color) differs at the equator and at the poles. Now we see Vega from the pole, so it appears pale blue to us.
Around Vega there is big cloud dust, the origin of which is controversial among scientists. The question of whether Vega has a planetary system is also debatable.
4 The brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere is Arcturus (α Bootes)
In fourth place is the brightest star of the Northern Hemisphere - Arcturus, which in Russia can be observed anywhere throughout the year. However, it is also visible in the Southern Hemisphere.
Arcturus is many times brighter than the Sun: if we take into account only the range perceived by the human eye, then more than a hundred times, but if we take the intensity of the glow as a whole, then 180 times! This is an orange giant with an atypical spectrum. Someday our Sun will reach the same stage that Arcturus is at now.
According to one version, Arcturus and its neighboring stars (the so-called Arcturus Stream) were once captured by the Milky Way. That is, all these stars are of extragalactic origin.
3 Toliman (α Centauri)
This is a double, or rather, even a triple star, but we see two of them as one, and the third, dimmer one, which is called Proxima, as if separately. However, in fact, all these stars are not very bright, but are located not far from us.
Since Toliman is somewhat similar to the Sun, astronomers have long and persistently been looking for a planet near it, similar to Earth and located at a distance that makes life on it possible. In addition, this system, as already mentioned, is located relatively close, so the first interstellar flight will probably be there.
Therefore, the love of science fiction writers for Alpha Centauri is understandable. Stanislav Lem (creator of the famous Solaris), Asimov, Heinlein devoted pages of their books to this system; The action of the acclaimed film “Avatar” also takes place in the Alpha Centauri system.
2 Canopus (α Carinae) is the brightest star in the Southern Hemisphere
In absolute terms of luminosity, Canopus is much brighter than Sirius, which, in turn, is much closer to Earth, so objectively it is the brightest night star, but from a distance (it is located at a distance of 310 light years) it seems dimmer to us than Sirius.
Canopus is a yellowish supergiant whose mass is 9 times the mass of the Sun, and it glows 14 thousand times more intensely!
Unfortunately, it is impossible to see this star in Russia: it is not visible north of Athens.
But in the Southern Hemisphere, Canopus was used to determine their location in navigation. In the same capacity, Alpha Carinae is used by our astronauts.
1 The brightest star in our starry sky is Sirius (α Canis Majoris)
The famous “dog star” (it was not for nothing that J. Rowling called her hero, who turned into a dog, that way), the appearance of which in the sky meant the beginning of vacation for ancient schoolchildren (this word means “dog days”) is one of the closest to the solar system and therefore perfectly visible from almost anywhere on Earth, except the Far North.
It is now believed that Sirius is a double star. Sirius A is twice as large as the Sun, and Sirius B is smaller. Although millions of years ago, apparently, it was the other way around.
Many peoples have left various legends associated with this star. The Egyptians considered Sirius to be the star of Isis, the Greeks - the dog of Orion taken to heaven, the Romans called him Canicula (“little dog”), in Old Russian this star was called Psitsa.
The ancients described Sirius as a red star, while we observe a bluish glow. Scientists can only explain this by assuming that all ancient descriptions were compiled by people who saw Sirius low above the horizon, when its color was distorted by water vapor.
Be that as it may, now Sirius is the brightest star in our sky, which can be seen with the naked eye even during the day!
Many people in November wonder: what bright star is visible in the east in the morning? She really very bright: other stars pale in comparison with her. It is still easily distinguishable even when here, in the southeast, dawn is already in full swing, washing away other stars from the sky. And then almost until sunrise this star remains completely alone.
I want to congratulate you - you are observing the planet Venus, the brightest luminary in our sky after the Sun and Moon!
Venus is only visible in the morning or evening sky- you will never see her late at night in the south. Her time is the predawn or twilight evening hours, when she literally reigns in the sky.
Check yourself if you are really observing Venus.
- In November and December 2018 Venus is visible in the east in the morning, rising 4 hours before sunrise. It is visible for two hours in the dark sky, and for another hour against the background of the morning dawn.
- Venus color white, near the horizon may be slightly yellowish.
- Venus does not flicker that is, it does not blink, does not tremble, but shines powerfully, evenly and calmly.
- Venus is so bright that it no longer looks like a star, but like the spotlight of an airplane flying towards it. It has long been noted that the bright white light of the planet is capable of cast clear shadows on the snow; The easiest way to check this is outside the city on a moonless night, where the light of Venus is not interfered with by street lights. By the way, according to Russian astronomers, about 30% of reports of UFOs in our country occur on rising or setting Venus.
Venus against the background of the morning dawn is still bright and noticeable, although at this time the stars are practically no longer visible. Pattern: stellarium
In November 2018 - slightly to the right of the planet. Please note: Spica is one of the twenty brightest stars in the entire sky, but next to Venus it simply fades! Another bright star, Arcturus, is located above and to the left of Spica. Arcturus has a characteristic reddish color. So, Venus is much brighter than Arcturus and even more so Spica!
Watch these luminaries for a few minutes and compare them appearance with Venus. Notice how much brighter stars twinkle than Venus. Spica can even shimmer in different colors! Try also to remember the brightness of Venus in comparison with the brightest stars- and you will never confuse it with anything else.
Few things can compare in beauty to Venus in the sky! The planet looks especially beautiful against the background of the flaring dawn. Beautiful celestial pictures are obtained when the crescent Moon is near Venus. The next such meeting will take place on the morning of December 3 and 4, 2018. Do not miss!
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