This is the first time  I have seen the second brightest star in the night sky Canopus.  Off course I have known about it since becoming interested in Astronomy in the nineteen sixties. I remember reading Patrick Moore's little book the observers book of Astronomy where Canopus is quoted as being 80,000 sun power. when the distance then was very uncertain.  But the latest parallax results put the star at about 310 light years, Still  its pretty impressive at around 13,000 sol