Brightest Star?Please help!?

Question

From Earth, what is the second brightest star we can see apart from the sun.??

Answer 1

not sure but theres the north star.also the planets venus and sometimes mars are seen quite clearly.

Answer 2

Sirius, followed by Canopus.

Answer 3

Sirius is the 2nd brighest star after sol.

Answer 4

Brightest star is Sun

Second Brightest is Sirius

Third brightest is Arctrus

from Earth

Answer 5

Assuming that you mean STAR literally. then the following applies...

This list gives the name and the brightness (the lower the number the brighter)

1. Sol (our Sun)   -26

2. Sirius              -1.45

3. Canopus          -0.7

4. Rigil Kentaurus -0.27

5. Arcturus           -0.04

6. Vega                +0.03

Vega is the bright star almost over head just after it gets dark in the summer (from latitudes similar to London, UK).

If, however, you are refering to star like objects - then the order is a little more vague...

1. The Sun (-26)

2. The Moon (-12 ish)

3. Venus (-4.5 ish)

4. Jupiter (-2.5ish)

Then comes Mars, Saturn,  Mercury which are all around the same brightness as the brighest stars, but get brighter and dimmer as their distance changes. So the position in a brightness list would change from one month to the next.

Cheers

Ant

www.stargazerslounge.com

Answer 6

Are we talking true brightness or apparent brightness?

The sun only appears brightest because it is so close.

In fact it is pretty average.

In terms of apparent brightness, Sirius is indeed the brightest star we can see.

But in terms of true brightness (i.e. how much energy a star puts out every second, stars can be a million times brighter than the sun.

For instance Rigel and Betelgeuse (both in Orion) are >100,000 times brighter than the sun.

And if we include supernovae - even brighter.

Answer 7

Sirius

Answer 8

From earth, the sun is brightest.  Sirius is a very distant second.  Canopus is third.  Followed by Arcturus, Alpha Centauri A, and Vega.

Technically, Arcturus is the brightest "Northern Hemisphere" star (excluding the sun), but Sirius is close enough to the celestial equator for most of the world to be able to view it at some point in time.  

<edit>

I just wanted to add to "Stargazerslounge" answer that with Saturn, it's brightness will also vary depending on the angle we are seeing it's rings at...  "face on" (or relatively close to that) will make Saturn much brighter than when we see them "edge on," for the obvious reasons that they reflect light too, and if more surface area is visible... well...

Answer 9

Sirius: apparent magnitude = -1.47

For comparison:

Sun: -26.73

Full Moon: -12.6

Difference in brightness between the Sun and Sirius: -1.47 - (-26.73) = 25.26

Variation in brightness: 2.512^ 25.26 = 12,720,259,808

The Sun is 12,720,259,808 times brighter than Sirius.

Edit: And Canopus is the next brightest at -0.7, Arcturus is -0.5