50 Brightest Stars. The brightest or apparent magnitude of each star in the night time sky is determined by the star's intrinsic luminosity, and by its distance from us. The intrinsic luminosity of the stars varies from less than 1/1000 of the Sun's luminosity to over a million times greater.
http://astropixels.com/stars/brightstars.html
Magnitudes. As it turns out, the eye senses brightness logarithmically, so each increase in 5 magnitudes corresponds to a decrease in brightness by a factor 100. The absolute magnitude is the magnitude the stars would have if viewed from a distance of 10 parsecs or some 32.6 light years.
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/brightest.html
Capella has a magnitude of 0.08 and is the brightest star in the constellation of Auriga and is followed by Rigel at 0.12 in the constellation of the Hunter – Orion. Orion also possesses the red giant Betelgeuse, which blazes at a magnitude of 0.5. slide 4 of 6.
http://www.brighthub.com/science/space/articles/48088.aspx
Note that most of these distances are really nearby, on a cosmic scale, and that they are generally uncertain by at least 20%. All stars are variable to some extent; those which are visibly variable are marked with a v. What are apparent and absolute magnitudes? Apparent is how bright the appear to us in the sky. The scale is somewhat arbitrary, as explained above, but a magnitude difference of 5 has been set to exactly a factor of 100 in intensity. Absolute magnitudes are how bright a star would appear from some standard distance, arbitrarily set as 10 parsecs or about 32.6 light years.
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/brightest.html
The table below lists details for the 50 brightest stars according to the Hipparcos Space Astrometry Mission. This 3.5 year mission was designed to measure the positions and distances of over a million stars with unprecedented accuracy.
http://astropixels.com/stars/brightstars.html
Brightest Stars in the Sky. There are a few stars that stand out prominently in the night sky but not quite as bright as the planets, except for Sirius, the Dog Star in the constellation of Canis Major, which shines at a magnitude of -1.42—brighter than Mars but not quite as bright as Mercury.
http://www.brighthub.com/science/space/articles/48088.aspx
If you are trying to find out what those bright stars in the eastern morning sky are (Sep/Oct 2015), go to the front page of this blog at transientsky.wordpress.com for the latest posts.]. When it is dark enough to see a few stars in the sky during evening twilight, look to the East and Southeast. About a third of the way from the horizon to the zenith (straight up), 3 bright “stars” can be seen spread out from due East to the South-South-East (see the chart below). View of the East-Southeast sky in the early evening. The star Procyon is located between Mars and Sirius. Chart made with Stellarium.
https://transientsky.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/2-bright-stars-and-a-planet-in-the-east-to-southeast-sky/
If you can see 5 then you know that the sky is both dark and transparent! Three stars drop down to the right of the bottom right hand corner of the square marked by Alpha Pegasi, Markab. A brighter star Epsilon Pegasi is then a little up to the right, at 2nd magnitude the brightest star in this part of the sky.
http://www.jodcast.net/sky/
View full size image. Sirius, also known as the Dog Star or Sirius A, is the brightest star in Earth's night sky. The name means glowing in Greek. With a visual magnitude of -1.46, the star is outshone only by several planets as well as the International Space Station. Because Sirius is so bright, it was well-known to the ancients. What came as a surprise to astronomers was the discovery of a companion star, Sirius B, in 1862.
http://www.space.com/21702-sirius-brightest-star.html
The 3 “stars” are, in fact, 2 stars and a planet: Sirius, Procyon, and Mars. Let’s start with the Sirius, the southernmost and brightest of the three. Not only is Sirius the brightest of the three (at magnitude -1.5), it is the brightest star in the entire night sky.
https://transientsky.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/2-bright-stars-and-a-planet-in-the-east-to-southeast-sky/
what is the name of the bright star in the sky
The name of the bright star in the sky is sirius.  the name of the bright star in the sky is  Sirius.