List of brightest stars

Below are the 50 brightest individual stars in order of their "average" apparent magnitudes in the visible spectrum as seen from Earth.
To the naked eye on a clear dark night, in a place far from cities and lights, the total number of stars visible is about 9000. This is not the same as a list of the brightest stars as seen with the naked eye, because close binary or multiple star systems will appear as a single star brighter than their individual components. The binary system Alpha Centauri has an apparent magnitude of -0.27, but the brightest individual star is Alpha Centauri A with the apparent magnitude as listed here of -0.01. Hence Alpha Centauri is the third brightest star in the night sky, whilst its brightest component Alpha Centauri A is the fourth brightest individual star.