Five almost-famous stars worth gazing at

They may not be as well-known as the superstars of the sky, but these easy-to-observe suns are far from second-rate.

The wintertime constellations Orion, Gemini, and Canis Major are particularly famous — but don’t overlook Canis Minor and its brightest star, Procyon, just above the roof at center in this image. Credit: Preston Dyches (Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)

There are many glittering celebrity stars in the Hollywood of the heavens, astronomical A-listers whom every skywatcher fawns over. But for every celestial Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, or Tom Cruise, there are hundreds if not thousands of other lesser-known stars. These B-list suns may not have their own fan clubs or groupies but, like all good understudies, are just as fascinating in their own right.

We’ve picked five of these stars to pull out of the wings and thrust into the spotlight. They might not be in the limelight as much as their cosmic Kardashian neighbors Sirius, Regulus, and Polaris, but they deserve to be on any must-see list, not skipped over as we wander around the sky on a clear night.

Here then, are the Almost-Famous Five.

Procyon

Shining with an impressive magnitude of 0.4, Procyon is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Minor and the 8th brightest star in the sky. If it were positioned anywhere else in the sky it would undoubtedly be one of its superstars. Unfortunately, one of its nearest neighbors is Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and the stunning constellation Orion — with the strikingly bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel blazing in opposite corners — is just a bone’s throw away, too. So, Procyon is often ignored. In fact, it is a fascinating binary star only 11.4 light-years away, comprising a white F5-class star orbited by a white dwarf companion. Get out and look at Procyon while you can, because its time is measured: In another 10 million to 100 million years, it will reach the end of its life by swelling up into a red giant star before fading away.

Denebola

Sphinx-shaped Leo is one of the most distinctive constellations in the sky. Its brightest star, magnitude 1.4 Regulus, shines at the end of the handle of the famous Sickle asterism and is the 21st brightest star in the sky. But if you can drag your eyes away from jewel-bright Regulus and sweep your gaze to the other end of Leo, shining on the tip of the great cat’s tail you’ll find Denebola. With a magnitude of 2.1, it’s fainter than Regulus, but this white main sequence star, only 36 light-years from Earth, is 12 times more luminous than our own Sun. Because it lies very close to the ecliptic, Denebola is often joined in the sky by a bright planet or the Moon, so it is frequently imaged by astrophotographers.

Kochab

You can’t help but feel sorry for poor Kochab. Shining in Ursa Minor with a magnitude of 2.1, it is the 58th brightest star in the sky. Although easily visible to the naked eye even from the heart of light-polluted towns, it lives in the shadow of the most famous star in the whole sky: Polaris, the pole star. Polaris and Kochab are nearly the same brightness, but Kochab has been relegated to a star that people pass on their way to — or worse, mistake for — Polaris when they are polar-aligning their telescope or motorized star tracker. Which is a shame, because Kochab is a fascinating orange giant star 50 times the size of our own Sun and 500 times more luminous. So, the next time you’re lining up your scope or astrophotography mount, take a proper look at Kochab. It deserves it!

Saiph

With bright, ruddy Betelgeuse and brighter, sapphire-hued Rigel, plus a belt of three ice-chip stars tied tightly around its waist, Orion is a stunning constellation and one of the first star patterns newcomers to stargazing look for and recognize. Glowing at magnitude 2.1, the faintest star in the Hunter’s famous outline, Saiph, is rarely given more than a brief glance. But that’s grossly unfair, because it is an enthralling faraway sun. Saiph is a truly massive star, a class B1 supergiant 15 to 20 times our Sun’s size and around 60,000 times more luminous. It is only so faint in our sky because it is 650 light-years away, so its brilliant light is dimmed.

Alkaid

Forming part of the constellation Ursa Major, the asterism known to some as the Big Dipper and to others as the Plough is probably the most famous pattern of stars in the whole sky. Its two most famous members, limelight-hugging Dubhe and Merak, are known as the Pointer Stars because they point the way to Polaris, the pole star. Overshadowed by this celebrity pair, shining on the opposite end of the Big Dipper at the very end of its curved handle, is magnitude 1.9 Alkaid, the 40th brightest star in the night sky. Alkaid is perhaps best known for being the last star that star-hoppers pass as they hopscotch down the Great Bear’s curved tail and “follow the arc to Arcturus.” But it’s much more than that. It is a young, blue-white main sequence star, 700 times more luminous than our own Sun — but more importantly, it is an imposter! Although it sits among them, Alkaid is not a member of the Ursa Major Moving Group, the small cluster of stars that make up most of the Big Dipper in our sky. It just happens to lie in the same direction as seen from Earth — but it’s moving in a totally different direction. So, in far future years, Alkaid will drift away from the Big Dipper, distorting and eventually wrecking its shape.

Related: Inside the Ursa Major Moving Group