Beginning in early May, the comet started racing north and burst into view in the northern hemisphere when it had reached almost maximum brightness.

One star has an apparent magnitude of 4.87 at maximum brightness and 4.95 at minimum brightness, while the other has an apparent magnitude of 11.9.

He set it to maximum brightness, the idea being to fool the ship into believing that it was too close to a real star and brake harder.

Note: Greatest brilliancy is often confused with "maximum brightness".

It is classified as an irregular variable pulsating supergiant carbon star, and irregularly varies from an apparent visual magnitude of 8.5 at minimum brightness to a magnitude of 8.0 at maximum brightness.

The ant scans the sky until the map built into its eye aligns with the scene above so as to show maximum brightness.

Its apparent visual magnitude varies by 0.02 magnitudes and is approximately 7.72 at maximum brightness.

It is classified as a Mira variable, and varies from an apparent visual magnitude of 15.3 at minimum brightness to a magnitude of 10.0 at maximum brightness, with a period of approximately 391.2 days.

Its overall apparent visual magnitude varies by 0.04 magnitudes with a period of 2.344 days, and is approximately 4.27 at maximum brightness.

It is classified as a semiregular variable red giant star, and varies from an apparent visual magnitude of 9.4 at minimum brightness to a magnitude of 7.0 at maximum brightness, with a period of approximately 136 days.