The 20 stars below comprise the brightest visible to the naked eye in the night sky in both hemispheres. The apparent magnitudes of the brightest stars are pretty well agreed upon in the astronomy literature. More problematic, however, are their distances. Note that some distances are accompanied by a second value in parentheses. This second value is merely an alternative estimate based on results that used slightly different parameters or observational and analytical methods to derive stellar distances. Of course, a single star cannot occupy space at two difference distances simultaneously, but it would be misleading for me to arbitrarily select a distance value that asserts unequivocally that Betelgeuse, say, is 540 light-years away, when other data, just as good, puts that value closer to 1,400. Hence, in cases of divergences, I've supplied at least two outside values and am more than content to let astronomers fight it out.

The interpretation of the various star names are usually derived from Latin or Arabic phrases. Aldebaran, for example, is from the Arabic Al Dabaran, the follower, and Betelgeuse is from Ibt al Jauzah, armpit of the central one. Like distances, however, there is a wide range of interpretations of these names. Those presented here are the ones more commonly used.