Table of Notable Celestial Objects
| App. Mag. (V) | Celestial object |
|---|---|
| –38.00 | Rigel as seen from 1 astronomical unit. It would be seen as a large very bright bluish scorching ball of 35° apparent diameter. |
| –30.30 | Sirius as seen from 1 astronomical unit |
| –29.30 | Sun as seen from Mercury at perihelion |
| –27.40 | Sun as seen from Venus at perihelion |
| –26.74 | Sun as seen from Earth (398,359 times brighter than mean full moon) |
| –25.60 | Sun as seen from Mars at aphelion |
| –23.00 | Sun as seen from Jupiter at aphelion |
| –21.70 | Sun as seen from Saturn at aphelion |
| –20.20 | Sun as seen from Uranus at aphelion |
| –19.30 | Sun as seen from Neptune |
| –18.20 | Sun as seen from Pluto at aphelion |
| –16.70 | Sun as seen from Eris at aphelion |
| –14 | An illumination level of one lux |
| –12.92 | Maximum brightness of full Moon (mean is –12.74) |
| –11.20 | Sun as seen from Sedna at aphelion |
| –10 | Comet Ikeya–Seki (1965) which was the brightest Kreutz Sungrazer of modern times |
| –9.50 | Maximum brightness of an Iridium (satellite) flare |
| –7.50 | The SN 1006 supernova of AD 1006, the brightest stellar event in recorded history |
| –6.50 | The total integrated magnitude of the night sky as seen from Earth |
| –6.00 | The Crab Supernova (SN 1054) of AD 1054 (6500 light years away) |
| –5.9 | International Space Station (when the ISS is at its perigee and fully lit by the Sun) |
| –4.89 | Maximum brightness of Venus when illuminated as a crescent |
| –4.00 | Faintest objects observable during the day with naked eye when Sun is high |
| –3.99 | Maximum brightness of Epsilon Canis Majoris 4.7 million years ago, the historical brightest star of the last and next five million years |
| –3.82 | Minimum brightness of Venus when it is on the far side of the Sun |
| –2.94 | Maximum brightness of Jupiter |
| –2.91 | Maximum brightness of Mars |
| –2.50 | Faintest objects visible during the day with naked eye when Sun is less than 10° above the horizon |
| –2.50 | Minimum brightness of new Moon |
| –2.45 | Maximum brightness of Mercury at superior conjunction (unlike Venus, Mercury is at its brightest when on the far side of the Sun, the reason being their different phase curves) |
| –1.61 | Minimum brightness of Jupiter |
| –1.47 | Brightest star (except for the Sun) at visible wavelengths: Sirius |
| –0.83 | Eta Carinae apparent brightness as a supernova impostor in April 1843 |
| –0.72 | Second-brightest star: Canopus |
| –0.49 | Maximum brightness of Saturn at opposition and when the rings are full open (2003, 2018) |
| –0.27 | The total magnitude for the Alpha Centauri AB star system. (Third-brightest star to the naked eye) |
| –0.04 | Fourth-brightest star to the naked eye Arcturus |
| −0.01 | Fourth-brightest individual star visible telescopically in the sky Alpha Centauri A |
| +0.03 | Vega, which was originally chosen as a definition of the zero point |
| +0.50 | Sun as seen from Alpha Centauri |
| 1.47 | Minimum brightness of Saturn |
| 1.84 | Minimum brightness of Mars |
| 3.03 | The SN 1987A supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud 160,000 light-years away. |
| 3 to 4 | Faintest stars visible in an urban neighborhood with naked eye |
| 3.44 | The well known Andromeda Galaxy (M31) |
| 4.38 | Maximum brightness of Ganymede (moon of Jupiter and the largest moon in the Solar System) |
| 4.50 | M41, an open cluster that may have been seen by Aristotle |
| 5.20 | Maximum brightness of Vesta asteroid |
| 5.32 | Maximum brightness of Uranus |
| 5.72 | The spiral galaxy M33, which is used as a test for naked eye seeing under dark skies |
| 5.73 | Minimum brightness of Mercury |
| 5.8 | Peak visual magnitude of gamma ray burst GRB 080319B (the "Clarke Event") seen on Earth on March 19, 2008 from a distance of 7.5 gigalight-years. |
| 5.95 | Minimum brightness of Uranus |
| 6.49 | Maximum brightness of asteroid Pallas |
| 6.50 | Approximate limit of stars observed by a mean naked eye observer under very good conditions. There are about 9,500 stars visible to mag 6.5. |
| 6.64 | Maximum brightness of dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt |
| 6.75 | Maximum brightness of asteroid Iris |
| 6.90 | The spiral galaxy M81 is an extreme naked eye target that pushes human eyesight and the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale to the limit |
| 7 to 8 | Extreme naked eye limit with class 1 Bortle Dark-Sky Scale, the darkest skies available on Earth |
| 7.78 | Maximum brightness of Neptune |
| 8.02 | Minimum brightness of Neptune |
| 8.10 | Maximum brightness of Titan (largest moon of Saturn), mean opposition magnitude 8.4 |
| 8.94 | Maximum brightness of asteroid 10 Hygiea |
| 9.50 | Faintest objects visible using common 7x50 binoculars under typical conditions |
| 10.20 | Maximum brightness of Iapetus (brightest when west of Saturn and takes 40 days to switch sides) |
| 12.91 | Brightest quasar 3C 273 (luminosity distance of 2.4 giga-light years) |
| 13.42 | Maximum brightness of Triton |
| 13.65 | Maximum brightness of Pluto (725 times fainter than magnitude 6.5 naked eye skies) |
| 15.40 | Maximum brightness of centaur Chiron |
| 15.55 | Maximum brightness of Charon (the large moon of Pluto) |
| 16.80 | Current opposition brightness of Makemake |
| 17.27 | Current opposition brightness of Haumea |
| 18.70 | Current opposition brightness of Eris |
| 20.70 | Callirrhoe (small ~8 km satellite of Jupiter) |
| 22.00 | Approximate limiting magnitude of a 24" Ritchey-Chrétien telescope with 30 minutes of stacked images (6 subframes at 300s each) using a CCD detector |
| 22.91 | Maximum brightness of Pluto's moon Hydra |
| 23.38 | Maximum brightness of Pluto's moon Nix |
| 24.80 | Amateur picture with greatest magnitude: quasar CFHQS J1641 +3755 |
| 25.00 | Fenrir (small ~4 km satellite of Saturn) |
| 27.00 | Faintest objects observable in visible light with 8m ground-based telescopes |
| 28.00 | Jupiter if it were located 5000AU from the Sun |
| 28.20 | Halley's Comet in 2003 when it was 28AU from the Sun |
| 31.50 | Faintest objects observable in visible light with Hubble Space Telescope |
| 35.00 | LBV 1806-20, a luminous blue variable star, expected magnitude at visible wavelengths due to interstellar extinction |
| 36.00 | Faintest objects observable in visible light with E-ELT |
| (see also List of brightest stars) | |
Some of the above magnitudes are only approximate. Telescope sensitivity also depends on observing time, optical bandpass, and interfering light from scattering and airglow.
Read more about this topic: Apparent Magnitude
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