Night’s Brightest Star

Sirius, the brightest star in Canis Major and in the entire night sky, too, is hard to miss once it clears the trees and rooftops in the southeast by 7:30 p.m. local time. Also known as the Dog Star, it will climb to its highest point in the lower part of the southern sky shortly after midnight local time. If you are walking through your darkened house in the middle of the night, Sirius might catch your eye out a window because it never climbs very high. Sirius is a hot, blue-white, A-class star located only 8.6 light-years from our sun. Its extreme brightness and its low position in the sky combine to produce spectacular flashes of various colors as it twinkles. A very large telescope may allow you to see Sirius B, a faint white dwarf companion star located just 10 arc-seconds to the east of Sirius.