A Simple H-R Diagram

Once you know the luminosity and temperature (or color) of a star, you can plot the star as a point on the H-R diagram. Plot the luminosity on the y-axis with brighter stars going toward the top. Since brighter stars have lower magnitudes, if you choose to plot magnitude on the y-axis, the values will decrease as you go up! That's OK - just remember that the luminosity of the star is increasing.

Plot temperature on the x-axis. However, since we can't know a star's real temperature, you should instead plot color (either the traditional b-v or SDSS's g-r) on the x-axis. Traditionally, hotter stars have been placed at the left of the chart and cooler stars to the right. Even though the temperature decreases as you move the right, the b-v and g-r values will increase. So you should make your H-R diagram with b-v or g-r increasing to the right.

The first H-R diagram you should try is a diagram for the brightest stars in the sky. The table below shows the 26 brightest stars in the sky. Instead of plotting their luminosities (which are so large that they're hard to visualize), plot the stars' absolute magnitudes. Absolute magnitude is defined as the magnitude that a star would have if you saw it from a distance of 10 parsecs (about 32 light-years). Stars with higher luminosities put out more light, so they are brighter - they have lower apparent magnitudes. Stars with lower luminosities put out less light, so they are dimmer - they have higher absolute magnitudes.

The table below shows the 26 brightest stars, giving their names, apparent magnitudes, absolute magnitudes, and b-v colors.

If you want more stars, there is a list of the 314 brightest stars available here.