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Measuring the Sky

This is a quick guide to the celestial sphere. You will learn about the celestial poles, the celestial equator, the ecliptic, and the signs of the zodiac. Time and coordiante systems are also introducted.

The 91 Brightest Stars
Magnitudes (hence rankings) and spectral classes are those of the BSC. In cases of ties, the stars are ranked from hottest to coolest. Many of the stars are binary (double) or even more complex. Close doubles are noted, wide ones ignored. Doubles unresolvable with the naked eye (ignoring faint companions) are ranked according to the combined magnitudes, with data on individuals given in the remarks. Listings such as this one cannot be unique and definitive because of stellar variability, different sources of data, and different ways of treating binaries.

Nature of the Stars
It is the purpose of this site to provide a deep, non-technical review of stars and their natures for the beginner. This page presents facts about stars as we know them without delving into the details of discovery. A parallel site that explores the spectra of the stars examines how we have learned so much of what is presented here. The two sites are linked, allowing you to go back and forth between them to see how stars are born, live their lives, and die, in the process creating other stars, perhaps other earths, and all that is around us.

Spectra
This site, closely coupled toThe Natures of the Stars, provides an introduction to the spectra of stars and allied celestial objects. Here we examine the principal way in which astronomers have learned so much about the stars. "Spectra" is embedded with links that will take you back to the appropriate parts of "The Natures of the Stars."

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