The Universe within 250 Light Years
The Solar Neighbourhood

The Solar Neighborhood
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* Number of stars within 250 light years = 260 000

About the Map

This map is a plot of the 1500 most luminous stars within 250 light years. All of these stars are much more luminous than the Sun and most of them can be seen with the naked eye. About one third of the stars visible with the naked eye lie within 250 light years, even though this is only a tiny part of our galaxy.

Additional Maps
A map of solar neighborhood stars There are 133 stars visible with the naked eye within 50 light years of us, and here is a map showing all of these stars.
A Skyglobe This page contains some templates which you can print-out and glue together, to create a twenty-six-sided skyglobe, showing all of the naked-eye stars in the night-sky.
Data and Catalogs
Stellar Classification Here is a concise diagram showing most of the different types of stars that exist together with some basic data on sizes, masses, temperatures etc of all the different star types.
The HR Diagram All of the major types of stars have a location on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram which is a plot of the luminosity of stars against their colour.
A list of the Brightest Stars This is a list of the 300 brightest stars together with the distances taken from the Hipparcos catalogue.

The Hyades Star Cluster

The Hyades cluster is the nearest major star cluster and the only one close enough to be mapped in three dimensions. The Hyades cluster is a bright object in Taurus, but the view is partially ruined by Aldebaran - a brilliant orange giant star that lies in front of the cluster at less than half the distance. The cluster itself is 151 light years from us. It was formed about 660 million years ago and the cluster has probably travelled around the Galaxy three times since then. Like most open star clusters, the stars in the cluster are slowly moving apart.

A map of the Hyades
The Hyades - a bright star cluster in Taurus

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