The six nearest stars, in order, are: Alpha Centauri system (3 stars), Barnard's Star, Wolf 359, and Lalande 21185. This list omits* three known brown dwarfs that slot in between Barnard's Star and Wolf 359.
*(The brown dwarfs are omitted not because they are insignificant, but because they are not stars - they do not fuse hydrogen. Also, they mostly radiate in deep infrared wavelengths invisible to the human eye.)
Lalande 21185 is a red dwarf 8.3 ly away with an apparent magnitude of 7.5. This makes it visually accessible to both binoculars and small telescopes. It is in the constellation Ursa Major, approximately halfway between the Big Dipper and the constellation Leo.
With the help of a star chart, Lalande 21185 was easily found with a 10x50 binocular. It was likewise an easy sight in a 60mm f/6 refractor. It is currently high in the sky after twilight ends.
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| credit: SkySafariAstronomy.com |
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| Lalande 21185 is circled. Samyang AF 35mm f/1.8, softon filter. |
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| Olympus 75mm f/1.8, softon filter. |
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| Lalande 21185 |
I also made another attempt at seeing Barnard's Star with binoculars, but could never be sure I had it. With the 60mm telescope, however, it was an easy target at 18x with a 20mm eyepiece.
There were some passing clouds near the horizon. The measured sky brightness was sqml=21.45.
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