Mizar
The middle star of the Big Dipper’s handle, with fainter Alcor beside it, a classic test of eyesight.
Tonight from
Rise, highest point and set are worked out on your device for the place above.
What it is
- Brightness
- Magnitude 2.23, the 71st brightest star in the night sky
- Distance
- 86 light years
- Kind of star
- White main-sequence star, spectral type A2 V
- Light it gives out
- About 77 times the Sun’s, in visible light
- Constellation
- Ursa Major, where it is ζ Ursae Majoris
- Catalogue number
- HIP 65378
Figures from HYG database 4.1 (Hipparcos, Yale Bright Star and Gliese catalogues), CC BY-SA 4.0. All sources
Near it in the sky
- AliothA white star in Ursa Major, about three fingers away.
- Pinwheel GalaxyA galaxy in Ursa Major, about three fingers away.
- AlkaidA blue-white main-sequence star in Ursa Major, about three fingers away.
- Whirlpool GalaxyA galaxy in Canes Venatici, about a fist away.
- DubheA bright star in Ursa Major, about a hand span away.