What Is the Brightest Star in the Sky?
The brightest of all the stars in our sky is Sirius, which is located in the constellation Canis Major, the Great Dog. For that reason, this star is also known as the Dog Star. Ancient astronomers noticed that Sirius rose with the sun late in the summer. That’s why we call the hot days of late summer the “dog days.” The ancient
Sirius is the brightest star (besides the Sun) with a visual apparent magnitude of −1.46, almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest star. Sirius is a mere 8.6 light-years from Earth, which is very close compared to the majority of the stars in the night sky. What you actually see when you look at this is Sirius A, and Sirius B. Sirius A is a star twice as large as the Sun, which projects most of the light we see, while Sirius B is simply a companion white dwarf star. Hopefully this helps.
Whether astronomers bring their telescopes, a banner, or just their sunglasses, they have a lot of great information about the Sun to share. Hear how these astronomers turn a sunny day into a great chance to learn about what you can find just by looking up. (Of course, never look directly at the Sun, as it may damage your eyes!) Pete Peterson of the Astronomical Society of Southern New England in Rhode Island shared an article about their Fun in the Sun Day, excerpted from www.southcoasttoday.com: “'Wow, you can see space up there,' said one of the fascinated youngsters hovering around the telescope area. Mark Gibson adjusted a special telescope to let the crowd peer at the sun's flaring eruptions.” The Night Sky Network provides resources to motivated astronomy clubs to help them illustrate their presentations. Joan Chamberlin of Maine's Astronomical Society of Northern New England tells us about how engaging the Solar Banner was in a presentation at a 4H Club: “The little
