Top Five Stars

Stars are pretty mental when you stop to think about it - they are basically giant, constantly-exploding nuclear bombs that hang around for billions or even trillions of years - crikey! Just watch a video of a 'coronal mass ejection' to witness the scale of their fury, and that's just our thoroughly average, non-spectacular star. There are billions more out there, most of which we know little about, but some are very well known. Here's a brief look at some of the most noteworthy examples:

5... Canopus

Unfortunately, only those oafs in the southern hemisphere get to see Canopus but I included it anyway as I like its name. It's a white supergiant and is very very bright - over 10,000 times brighter than the sun, in fact, and is also a source of x-rays which means it's spooky too. It's also a bit of a loner in galactic terms, and is not part of any stellar groups. I can relate to that...

4... Polaris

Although also sounding like the name of a sinister government project, perhaps involving alien technology, Polaris is well known as the northern pole star which, at least for us splendid fellows in the northern hemisphere, means everything in the sky rotates around it. It's actually a triple system with the main star being a yellow supergiant and has been used for navigation since ancient times.

3... Procyon

This distinctive name first came to my attention in the Star Control series of games but it is notable for non-gaming reasons too. It's a binary system consisting a white 'main sequence' star along with a white dwarf companion, and is also very close to us in galactic terms. It's also part of the constellation of Canis Minor which is one of Orion's dogs! I wonder which star is the ball it has to fetch?

2... Vega

Vega is awesome for several reasons. It was one of the first stars besides the sun to be extensively studied and was found to be younger than our own star, a bit bigger, and also a brilliant blue colour. It was also, of course, the star the alien signal came from in Contact where it's depicted as surrounded by swirly clouds of gas and dust. It's nearly as close to us Procyon too, and was even once a pole star itself!

1... Betelguese

While we're on the subject of distinctively-coloured stars, few can match the mighty Betelguese (which, yes, is pronounced Beetlejuice - tee hee!). It's the brightest star in the best constellation in the sky - Orion - and is so orange you can even see its orangeness with the naked eye. It's also absolutely enormous, a supergiant in fact, and nearing the end of its life. Don't go yet, orange knight of the sky...

Honourable Mentions: Sirius, Arcturus, Barnard's Star, Rigel, Wolf 359, Arcturus, Formalhaut, Epsilon Eridani, Antares, Alpha Centauri, Pollux, VY Canis Majoris, UY Scuti