The 6th-brightest star in the night sky, Capella, in the Northern Hemisphere constellation Auriga the Charioteer, is also a point of the Winter Hexagon.
What was the Christmas star? Some scientific explanations attempt to explain the Star of Bethlehem, including a planetary conjunction, comet or supernova.
Alpheratz, the brightest star in the constellation Andromeda, can guide you to the Andromeda Galaxy, the closest large spiral galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy.
Arcturus is the brightest star north of the celestial equator. Near the handle of the Big Dipper, it's easy to find in spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
Larry Sessions has written many favorite posts in EarthSky's Tonight area. He's a former planetarium director in Little Rock, Fort Worth and Denver and an adjunct faculty member at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He's a longtime member of NASA's Solar System Ambassadors program. His articles have appeared in numerous publications including Space.com, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy and Rolling Stone. His small book on world star lore, Constellations, was published by Running Press.