The 25 brightest stars of the night sky:
Constellation Star Name Mag Dist Hemisphere
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Canis Major Sirius -1.46 9 Southern
Carina Canopus -0.72 300 S
Bootes Arcturus -0.04 34 Northern
Centaurus Rigel Kentaurus A -0.01 4 S
Lyra Vega 0.03 25 N
Auriga Capella 0.08 43 N
Orion Rigel 0.12 900 S
Canis Minor Procyon 0.38 11 N
Eridanus Achernar 0.46 150 S
Orion Betelgeuse 0.50 400 N
Centaurus Hadar 0.60 500 S
Aquila Altair 0.77 16 N
Hydrus Beta Hydri 0.82 24 S
Taurus Aldebaran 0.85 60 N
Scorpius Antares 0.90 600 S
Virgo Spica 1.00 250 S
Gemini Pollux 1.14 35 N
Piscis Austrinus Fomalhaut 1.16 25 S
Crux Becrux 1.20 350 S
Cygnus Deneb 1.25 1500 N
Crux Acrux 1.33 320 S
Centaurus Rigel Kentaurus B 1.33 4 S
Leo Regulus 1.35 69 N
Canis Major Adara 1.50 450 S
Scorpius Shaula 1.60 700 S
Mag: Apparent magnitude: The degree of brightness of a star (on any space object). The scale is such that the brightest star has magnitude -1.4 and the faintest visible star has magnitude 6. The decrease of one scale unit corresponds to an increase in apparent or visual brightness by factor 2.512. I recommend reading Grzcyrgba's excellent entry on the topic in the magnitude node.
Dist: Approximate distance in light-years. Figures greater than 300 light years are essentially lower boundaries of a range which could be twice that listed.
A noding challenge from Ouroboros.
Source: NASA and various other astronomy webpages.