Which is the second brightest star in the night sky?
Canopus is the second brightest star in the night sky, most easily visible in summer in the Southern Hemisphere. It is in the constellation Carina. The star is of a fairly rare type, considered a class F giant on the main sequence of stars. This means it has a mass close to that of our Sun.
Because the star's spectral class is not well studied, it is difficult to establish how far away Canopus is. Parallax measurements with the Hipparcos satellite have established it to be about 310 light-years away.
The star's apparent distance from the sun, as well as its brightness compared to the star field around it, makes it a good star for spacecraft to regulate their attitude in orbit.
More Info:
en.wikipedia.org
What are your thoughts on this subject?
7 Comments
Albeck1994
Needed to specify which hemisphere as in northern it is invisible
Samuel Anhalt
Canopus is invisible for much of the Northern Hemisphere, so it couldn't possibly be the second brightest star in my night sky.
David Roy
rkcorrigan, not at night.
Richard D. Boyle
Approximately 90% of people on Earth live in the Northern Hemisphere. This question was designed to produce a large number of wrong responses. Congratulations on winning at “Gotcha” instead of Trivia.
rkcorrigan
Canopus is actually the third brightest star in the sky, behind our sun and Sirius.
John Davies
Alec Boreham, It says Night Sky, is the Sun visible at night? Doh!!
Alec Boreham
Is the Sun not a star? Doh!!! Followed by Sirius then Canopus. Nice one :-)