Question: can you see alpha centauri without a telescope

Answer: Yes, Alpha Centauri is the name given to what appears as a single star to the naked eye and the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus. At −0.27 apparent visual magnitude (calculated from A and B magnitudes), it is fainter only than Sirius and Canopus. The next-brightest star in the night sky is Arcturus. Alpha Centauri is a multiple-star system, with its two main stars being Alpha Centauri A (α Cen A) and Alpha Centauri B (α Cen B), usually defined to identify them as the different components of the binary α Cen AB. A third companion--Proxima Centauri (or Proxima or α Cen C)--is much further away than the distance between stars A and B, but is still gravitationally associated with the AB system. As viewed from Earth, it is located at an angular separation of 2.2° from the two main stars. Proxima Centauri would appear to the naked eye as a separate star from α Cen AB if it were bright enough to be seen without a telescope. Alpha Centauri AB and Proxima Centauri form a visual double star. Together, the three components make a triple star system, referred to by double-star observers as the triple star (or multiple star), α Cen AB-C.