Finding the Brightest Stars in the Night Sky

Updated 15 Dec 2011

If you can find a few well-known constellations such as Orion and the Big Dipper, you can use them to find and name the brightest stars in the night sky. This chart shows you how. Note: Only first magnitude stars visible from Northern latitudes (USA, Canada, UK, etc.) have been included.

Brightness & Color	Name & Pronunciation	Meaning & Origin	Constellation	How to find It	Maps
WINTER STARS
	Sirius sear-ee-us	Glowing (Greek)	Canis Major	Sirius is under Orion to the left and forms a large equilateral triangle with Procyon and Betelgeuse. It is the brightest star in the sky (but not as bright as some of the planets -- see below).
	Capella ka-pel-uh	Small female goat (Latin)	Auriga	Capella is located above Orion and is the brightest star in that part of the sky.
	Rigel rye-jul	Left (Arabic)	Orion	Rigel is the left foot of Orion (right from the viewer's perspective).
	Procyon pro-see-on	Before the Dog (Greek)	Canis Minor	Procyon is to the left of Orion and forms a large equilateral triangle with Sirius and Betelgeuse. It is located next to another bright star called Gomeisa.
	Betelgeuse bee-tul-joos	The Central One (Arabic)	Orion	Betelgeuse is the right arm of Orion (left from the viewer's perspective) and forms an equilateral triangle with Sirius and Procyon. It is noticeably red.
	Aldebaran al-da-bar-un	The Follower (Arabic)	Taurus	Aldebaran is above Orion to the right and is part of a triangle that forms the head of Taurus the Bull. It is noticeably red and is located to the left of the fuzzy cluster of stars known as the Pleiades
	Pollux paw-lux	One of the twin brothers of Helen of Troy (Greek)	Gemini	Castor and Pollux are the twins of the constellation Gemini. They are above Orion to the left. Do not confuse them with Procyon and Gomeisa
SPRING STARS
	Arcturus ark-tur-us	Guardian of the Bear (Greek)	Boötes	Find the Big Dipper and then follow the arc of its handle until you see a very bright star. That is Arcturus.
	Spica spike-ah	Ear of Grain (Latin)	Virgo	Continue following the arc mentioned above and the next bright star will be Spica.
	Regulus reg-yoo-lus	Little Prince (Latin)	Leo	To the west of Arcturus and Spica you will see a group of stars directly underneath the Big Dipper that look like an inverted question mark. This is the head of Leo the Lion and Regulus is the bright star at the bottom:
SUMMER STARS
	Vega vee-gah	Alighting vulture (Arabic)	Lyra	During the summer, these three very bright stars form a large isosceles triangle almost directly up in the sky. Vega is located next to a group of stars forming a small parallelogram, Deneb is located at the top of a group of stars forming a large cross, and Altair is flanked on each side by two slightly less bright stars.
	Altair al-tare	Fyling eagle (Arabic)	Aquila
	Deneb den-eb	Tail (Arabic)	Cygnus
	Antares an-tare-eez	Rival of Mars (Greek)	Scorpio	In the south, look for the snake-like figure of Scorpio followed by a group of stars that look like a teapot (Sagittarius). Antares is the brightest star in Scorpio and is noticeably red.
AUTUMN STARS
	Fomalhaut foo-mal-howt	Mouth of the whale (Arabic)	Piscis Austrinus	There are not many very bright stars in the autumn. The only first magnitude star is Fomalhaut, which can be seen just above the horizon in the south.
PLANETS
	Venus	All planets move slightly each night and therefore you have to refer to a sky guide to know where to look. However, they can be distinguished from the true stars in that they shine more steadily (ie. they do not "twinkle"), are usually brighter than anything else near them, and have clearly distinguishable colors. Also, Venus and Mercury are always seen *either* trailing the sun in the west at sunset or preceding the sun in the east at sunrise. Mercury will be quite close to the sun whereas Venus will be farther away. Mars, Jupiter & Saturn can appear anywhere along the Zodiac. Uranus is very faint and Neptune is impossible to see without a telescope
	Mars
	Jupiter
	Mercury
	Saturn