There must be a lot of astronomy facts right? Consider that there are somewhere around 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe, that’s a one followed by 22 zeros. Think about this, there are planets orbiting many of those stars. Then consider the moons that surround the planets, the asteroids, the nebula, the galaxies, and all the other stuff the universe contains. That’s a lot of data and facts and figures. Not every piece of information can be presented here. But it will be a lot of fun.

The data on the brightest star as seen from Earth are good astronomy facts. That’s discounting the Sun which is about 250,000 times closer than the next nearest star. We get so much light from the sun that when it shines none of the other stars can be seen. Keep in mind that in the scale for the magnitudes given, lower numbers are brighter. In the scale we’ll use the sun is 26.73, and the moon is -12.6. And now to the top five.

#5 goes to Vega, Arabic for vulture. As seen from Earth its magnitude is .03. Just because a star looks brighter from Earth doesn’t mean it’s really brighter. Our sun, for example, appears brighter than any other star, even though it’s not one of the brightest in the universe. That’s because it’s so close.

#4 goes to Rigel Kentaurus, or foot of the centaur. It’s about four light years from Earth with a magnitude of -.01.

At #3, by the known astronomy facts is Arcturus. The name means guardian of the bear in Greek. Arcturus is 37 light-years from Earth.

Canopus comes in at #2. In reality it’s the brightest of all of these top five stars. But because of its distance, 313 light-years from Earth, it only appears to be second brightest. It has a -.62 magnitude as seen by humans on this planet.

#1 is Sirius, meaning scorching in Greek. Sirius is also known as the Dog Star because it’s the brightest star in the constellation of Big Dog. It’s only 9 light years from Earth. That’s second closest of these top five. At -1.44 magnitude it’s the brightest star we can see from Earth.

Astronomy facts go way beyond this. But consider it next time you see the stars in the night sky.