Star
The Sun has an apparent magnitude of −26.7, but its absolute magnitude is only +4.83. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky as seen from Earth, is approximately 23 times more luminous than the Sun, while Canopus, the second brightest star in the night sky with an absolute magnitude of −5.53, is approximately 14,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Despite Canopus being vastly more luminous than Sirius, however, Sirius appears brighter than Canopus. This is because Sirius is merely 8.6 light-years from the Earth, while Canopus is much farther away at a distance of 310 light-years.
List of extremes in the sky
The greatest concentration of bright stars is around Orion. Within a circle of 60 degrees radius around a point in Monoceros at RA 6:30, DE 5ºS, 11 stars of magnitude +1.6 or brighter occur: Capella, Pollux, Castor, Regulus, Procyon, Sirius, Adhara, Canopus, Rigel, Betelgeuse and Aldebaran. No other part of the sky consists of so many bright stars. The entire sky consists of 23 such stars.
Narrowing the circle to 50 degrees and moving the center to the midway point of Capella and Canopus (a few degrees east of Orion's belt) will still consist of 9 stars leaving out only Regulus.