Table of Brightest Stars as Seen from Earth

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Name         Designation    Distance    Spectral Type     Relative Luminosity
                            (parsecs)   /Luminosity       Visual  (L_Sun)
                                         Class            Flux

Sun                         1/206265    G2 V                         1
Sirius A      a CMa A       2.63        A1 V              1.000    26.1 
Canopus       a Car        95.9         F0 II             0.470     1.4*10**4 
Arcturus      a Boo        11.3         K1.5 III          0.278   190.
Alpha Cen A   a Cen A       1.34        G2 V              0.268     1.77 
Vega          a Lyr         7.76        A0 V              0.258    61.9
Capella       a Aur        12.9         G5 III            0.247   180.
Rigel         b Ori A     237.          B8 Ia             0.225     7.0*10**5
Procyon A     a CMi A       3.50        F5 IV-V           0.184     7.73
Achernar      a Eri        44.1         B3 V              0.175     5.25*10**3
Betelgeuse    a Ori       131.          M1 Iab            0.175     4.1*10**4
Hadar         b Cen       161.          B1 III            0.151     8.6*10**4
Altair        a Aql        51.4         A7 V              0.132    11.8
Aldebaran     a Tau A      20.0         K5 III            0.119   370.
Spica         a Vir        80.4         B1 III-IV         0.108     2.5*10**4
Antares       a Sco A     185.          M1.5 Iab          0.100     3.7*10**4
Pollux        b Gem        10.          K0 IIIb           0.091    46.6
Fomalhaut     a Ps A        7.69        A3 V              0.090    18.9
Deneb         a Cyg       990.          A2 Ia             0.084     3.2*10**5 

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References: FK-A-7 for everything, except the luminosities and relative visual fluxes; CK-A-5 for the relative visual fluxes, luminosities and some corrections. Notes:
1. a = alpha and b= beta in the designations.
2. alpha, beta, gamma, etc. give the traditional order of brightess of the stars in a constellation. The traditional order is frequently inaccurate.
3. The capital A in the designation indicates, the star being considered is the primary star of a binary or higher order multiple star system.
4. The abbreviations in the designations are for the constellation in which the star is found: e.g., CMa stands for Canis Major.
5. The 88 IAU official constellations are detailed at Munich Astro Archive .
6. The relative visual flux of Sirius is set to 1.
7. The unaided eye actually responds very roughly like the logarithm of flux. For this reason magnitudes are often presented rather than flux or relative flux. See Magnitudes and the Magnitude System.

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We can locate some of the brightest stars on a sky map.

Sirius , Betelgeuse, and Aldebaran are all in the vicinity of Orion.

1. Sirius (the Dog star) is to the south-east of Orion.
2. Betelgeuse is Orion's eastern shoulder
3. Aldebaran is the eye of Taurus. One can find it by following a smooth curve from Sirius through Orion's belt and curving northward to Taurus.

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