The luminosity class II in the Yerkes spectral classification is given to bright giants. These are stars which straddle the boundary between giants and supergiants, and the classification is in general given to giant stars with exceptionally high luminosity, but which are not sufficiently bright or massive to be classified as supergiants.
Well known stars which are classified as bright giants include:
- Epsilon Canis Majoris (Adhara): a blue-white (B-type) bright giant
- Theta Scorpii (Sargas): a white (F-type) bright giant
- Beta Capricorni (Dabih): a yellow-white (G-type) bright giant
- Alpha Hydrae (Alphard): an orange (K-type) bright giant
- Alpha Herculis (Rasalgethi): a red (M-type) bright giant
- Gamma Canis Majoris (Muliphein) a (B-Type) bright giant
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—Annie Dillard (b. 1945)
“Ere he was born, the stars of fate
Plotted to make him rich and great:
When from the womb the babe was loosed,
The gate of gifts behind him closed.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)