Whether your characters are exploring alien ruins on a tidelocked world or drifting lightyears from any star, how you present local space can provide verisimilitude for your fictional galaxy.  In this seminar we’ll explore the community of stars surrounding our sun—our closest interstellar neighbors, and the stars we may visit first as we expand into extrasolar space.  We’ll start with Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our solar system and the nearest star with planets of its own.  From there we’ll explore stars such as UV Ceti, a flaring double star; Sirius, the brightest star in our sky; and Kapteyn’s Star, an ancient red dwarf with planets which might be eleven billion years old.  We’ll look at stars like Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani, classic locations in science fiction for their likelihood of having habitable worlds; and we’ll explore multiple-star systems like 40 Eridani which would pose a greater challenge to potential colonists.  We’ll also consider interstellar wanderers like the mysterious ‘Oumuamua, and we’ll discuss the possibilities of rogue planets—sunless worlds roaming the deeps of space alone.  We’ll conclude by expanding our view to encompass our galaxy as a whole, to understand just how many stars and worlds surround us, and how limitless their potential may be.