Blue-white Rigel shines as the brightest star in the constellation Orion the Hunter. It's a hot massive star, that someday will explode as a supernova.
Aldebaran, the brightest star in Taurus the Bull, is at one tip of a V-shaped cluster. If placed where our sun is, its surface would pass the orbit of Mercury.
When you gaze at the bright star Deneb, you’re gazing across thousands of light-years of space at one of the bright stars of the huge Summer Triangle asterism.
Altair, in the constellation Aquila the Eagle, is one of the closest stars to our solar system. It's variable in an unusual way, and it spins very fast!
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.