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Brightest Stars in the Night Sky Quiz

How well do you know the brightest stars in the night sky? Floored turns the ranking into a building: floor 1 is the top of the list. We name a floor, you guess what's on it, and the lift rides to whatever you picked so you know to go higher or lower.

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How it works

You get a few guesses per floor. Land it on your first guess for 10 points; a near miss still scores. After the stars round, four more lists keep the ride going.

Show the full ranking (29)
  1. Sirius -1.46 mag
    Its faint companion, Sirius B, is one of the most massive white dwarfs known.
  2. Canopus -0.74 mag
    Many spacecraft carry a 'Canopus star tracker' to help keep themselves oriented.
  3. Alpha Centauri -0.27 mag
    It's the nearest star system to the Sun, about 4.37 light-years away.
  4. Arcturus -0.05 mag
    Its light was used in the mechanism that opened the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.
  5. Vega 0.03 mag
    It was the northern pole star around 12,000 BC and will be again around the year 13,700.
  6. Capella 0.08 mag
    It looks like one star but is really four, arranged in two binary pairs.
  7. Rigel 0.13 mag
    Its name comes from Arabic for 'the left foot of Jauzah', an old Arabic name for Orion.
  8. Procyon 0.34 mag
    Its name means 'before the dog', as it rises just ahead of the Dog Star.
  9. Achernar 0.46 mag
    It spins so fast that it bulges at the equator, among the least spherical stars known.
  10. Betelgeuse 0.50 mag
    It faded so much in 2019 and 2020 that astronomers called it the 'Great Dimming'.
  11. Hadar 0.61 mag
    It's one of the two 'Pointers' that lead stargazers to the Southern Cross.
  12. Altair 0.76 mag
    It forms the Summer Triangle with Vega and Deneb.
  13. Acrux 0.76 mag
    It's the most southerly star of the Southern Cross.
  14. Aldebaran 0.86 mag
    One old Arabic name for it means 'the eye of Taurus'.
  15. Antares 0.96 mag
    Its name means 'rival to Ares', because its reddish color resembles Mars.
  16. Spica 0.97 mag
    It's believed to have given Hipparchus the data that revealed the precession of the equinoxes.
  17. Pollux 1.14 mag
    A planet, later named Thestias, was announced orbiting it in 2006.
  18. Fomalhaut 1.16 mag
    It's ringed by a dusty debris disk that has been imaged by Hubble, ALMA and Webb.
  19. Deneb 1.25 mag
    Distance estimates for it range from 1,400 to 2,600 light-years.
  20. Mimosa 1.25 mag
    It appears on the flags of Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.
  21. Regulus 1.39 mag
    An Arabic name for it means 'the heart of the lion'.
  22. Adhara 1.50 mag
    It's the brightest source of extreme ultraviolet light in the night sky.
  23. Castor 1.58 mag
    Though it looks like one star, it's a system of six.
  24. Shaula 1.63 mag
    Its name comes from Arabic for 'the raised tail', as it sits in the scorpion's tail.
  25. Gacrux 1.64 mag
    It's the nearest M-type red giant star to the Sun.
  26. Bellatrix 1.64 mag
    Its name is Latin for 'female warrior'.
  27. Elnath 1.65 mag
    Ptolemy considered it shared by Taurus and Auriga, so it has two Bayer designations.
  28. Miaplacidus 1.69 mag
    Its name may blend Arabic for 'waters' with Latin 'placidus', meaning placid.
  29. Alnilam 1.69 mag
    It's the middle star of Orion's Belt.

Source: Wikipedia: List of brightest stars · as of 2026-10

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