Quote:
Originally Posted by SingleWord
Is Mars the brightest "star"  in the night sky(or evening) observed by naked eye?
Or Venus? |
Taking "Star" to be celestial object, ...
In order of brightness: the sun (magnitude -27), the moon (-12.9), Venus (-3.8), Jupiter (-2.94), Mars (-2.91), Sirius (-1.4), Canopus (-0.7), Alpha Centauri (-0.2), Arcturus (0), Saturn (+0.1). The more negative the apparent magnitude, the brighter the object !
It's not that simple though. For one thing, the sun isn't up at night so it doesn't necessarily make sense to compare it to things that are (even though it is a STAR). And the moon will change brightness with its phases over the course of a month.
Also, the brightness of a planet will vary as it moves relative to or away from the earth, so the order of the list will change quite a bit during different parts of our year and the planets' years. This list is therefore arranged it by how bright the objects get when they're at their brightest.