Gliese 86 is another star with a confirmed planet in orbit. Unlike Gliese 876, however, Gliese 86 is more like the Sun. It's the closest of the planet-bearing stars to the Sun to be reasonably similar to the Sun. Its temperature and luminosity are much like those of Tau Ceti -- about half as energetic as the Sun, and slightly cooler.

Renditions of Gliese 86

1. Towards the Sun as seen from Gliese 86. The Sun is inconspicuous -- a fifth-magnitude star, which would be hard to see under city lights without binoculars. The Sun appears in a small cluster of four dim stars, just off the handle of the Big Dipper, which, although distorted here, is recognizable. The two bright stars below the bowl are Sirius and Procyon, much dimmer than they appear from the Earth, since Gliese 86 is considerably further from them than the Earth is.

2. Scorpius area from Gliese 86. The bright star immediately above Gliese 86 is Antares. Without too much imagination, you can make out the "fish hook" shape of Scorpius winding down and to the left of Antares -- like Orion, Scorpius's bright stars are predominantly very far away, and not greatly shifted by traveling ~35 light years.