Brightest star of the night sky I read in many astronomy sites that Sirius is the brightest star of the night sky and that Orion’s Belt points to Sirius. For some days I have been regularly watching Orion (just before dawn) but the star that the Orion's belt points towards is of very average brightness; I don't think it is Sirius. On the other hand I found a very bright star near Orion , albeit not along the line of its belt. On the morning of October 9 (around 5:30 am) this star was adjacent to the crescent moon and shining slightly more brightly ! Even in the early morning glow when all the stars faded away it could still be seen along with the moon. Is this Sirius?

I live in Delhi so I am talking of the Delhi night sky.
The best way to find a particular star/planet/etc. is almost certainly to use a star map of some sort.

For example, doing a Google Image search for "star map sirius" would get you quite a few pictures such as the one in this article about Sirius that give a better picture of how Orion's belt "points" to it.

Alternately, there are a number of computer programs that offer a real time views/maps of the night sky.

Also check out Google Sky.