Stars · Star in Ursa Major
Star
Mizar
The bend of the Big Dipper’s handle, with its faint companion Alcor beside it — an eyesight test used, the legend says, by Arab and Roman soldiers.
- Constellation
- Ursa Major
- Designation
- ζ Ursae Majoris
- Apparent magnitude
- 2.23 · 71st brightest star in the night sky
- Spectral class
- A2V
- Distance
- 85.8 light-years
- Position (J2000)
- RA 13h 24m · Dec +54° 56′
A white main-sequence star, around 9,500 K, like Sirius and Vega. About 51× brighter than the faintest star the eye can see. The light you are seeing left around 1940.
Discovery
Mizar was the first double star seen through a telescope, around 1617, and in 1857 the first photographed. Later each of its stars turned out to be double again.
Look for
If you can see Alcor next to it, your eyes and your sky are both good.