brightest star

[tiny tim]

Which is the brightest star north of the celestial equator?

[Clanad]

That would be Sirius... (serious)... (sorry).

Seen in the northern hemisphere December through March, it's the brightest star in the Canis Major (Great Dog) constellation...

[jake-the-peg]

Sirius has a declination of about -16 degress and is hence south of the celestial equator ( I suspect the questioner may have known this)

Arcturus is the brightest in the Northern celestial hemisphere.

You can check out the 26 brightest here http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/br ightest.html

[Clanad]

Jake's answer is precisely correct... not to make excuses, but one needs to read the question closely, which I did not... Thanks!

[KebabMeister]

Depending on your knowledge, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn are often mistaken for stars and are by far brighter than any star.