Arabic literature says that only those with the sharpest eyesight can see the companion of Mizar. The ability to resolve Mizar and Alcor with the naked eye is often quoted as a test of eyesight, although even people with quite poor eyesight can see the two stars. Mizar is Chickadee and Alcor is his cooking pot in the Mi'kmaq myth of the great bear and the seven hunters. Consequently, Zeta Ursae Majoris itself is known as 北斗六 Běi Dǒu liù, (English: the Sixth Star of Northern Dipper) and 開陽 Kāi Yáng, (English: Star of The Opener of Heat). In Chinese, 北斗 ( Běi Dǒu), meaning Northern Dipper, refers to an asterism consisting of Zeta Ursae Majoris, Alpha Ursae Majoris, Beta Ursae Majoris, Gamma Ursae Majoris, Delta Ursae Majoris, Epsilon Ursae Majoris and Eta Ursae Majoris. Ĭhinese Taoism personifies ζ Ursae Majoris as the Lu star. The Persian astronomer Al Biruni (973–1048 AD) mentioned its importance in the family life of the Arabs on the 18th day of the Syrian month Adar, the March equinox and a modern story of that same people makes it the infant of the walidan (mother?) among the three Banat (the Mourners: Alioth, Mizar, and Alkaid). Mizar and Alcor together are sometimes called the "Horse and Rider" (and popularly, in England, Jack on the Middle Horse), with Mizar being the horse. A Latin title was Eques Stellula, the Little Starry Horseman Eques, the Cavalier, is from the 17th-century German astronomer Bayer. Īlthough the statement has been made that Alcor was not known to the ancient Greeks, there is an old story that it was the Lost Pleiad Electra, which had wandered here from her companions and became Alopex, the Fox. West, of the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut. It appears as الخوّار al-Khawwar, 'the Faint One', in an interesting list of Arabic star names, published in Popular Astronomy, January 1895, by Professor Robert H. Īl-Sahja was the rhythmical form of the usual Suha.
As a married couple, they are considered to symbolize marriage and in some Hindu communities to this day priests conducting a wedding ceremony allude to or point out the asterism as a symbol of the closeness marriage brings to a couple. Mizar is known as Vasishtha, one of the Saptarishi, and Alcor as Arundhati, wife of Vasishtha, in Indian astronomy. īetween Mizar and Alcor, the 8th-magnitude star Sidus Ludoviciana is a distant background object. If they are exactly the same distance from us then the distance between them is only 17 800 AU (0.281 ly). The uncertainty is due to our uncertainty about the exact distances from us. Gaia parallax measurements indicate that the Alcor binary and Mizar quadruple are somewhat closer together than previously thought: 0.36 ☐.19 pc. However, it has yet to be demonstrated conclusively that they are gravitationally bound. Mizar and Alcor's proper motions show they move together, along with most of the other stars of the Big Dipper except Alpha Ursae Majoris and Eta Ursae Majoris, as members of the Ursa Major Moving Group, a mostly dispersed group of stars sharing a common birth. It has a faint red dwarf companion separated by 1 second of arc.
Alcor is of magnitude 3.99 and spectral class A5V. With normal eyesight Alcor appears at about 12 minutes of arc from Mizar. The whole system lies about 83 light-years away from the Sun, as measured by the Hipparcos astrometry satellite. In fact, it was the first known binary star system, discovered by Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli in 1650. Mizar, also designated Zeta Ursae Majoris (ζ Ursae Majoris, abbreviated Zeta UMa, ζ UMa), is itself a quadruple system and Alcor, also designated 80 Ursae Majoris (80 UMa), is a binary, the pair together forming a sextuple system. The traditional name Mizar derives from the Arabic المئزر miʼzar meaning 'apron wrapper, covering, cover'.Īlcor was originally Arabic سها Suhā/Sohā, meaning either the ‘forgotten’ or ‘neglected’ one notable as a faintly perceptible companion of Mizar. Mizar is the second star from the end of the Big Dipper's handle, and Alcor its fainter companion. This system consists of two pairs of double stars that are gravitationally bound to each other. Mizar's star is not a double star, but a four-star binary system located in the constellation Ursa Major (also known as the Big Dipper). Mizar consists of two stars with magnitudes 2.2 and 3.9 that can be seen easily without the aid of a telescope. Mizar and Alcor are two stars forming a naked eye double in the handle of the Big Dipper (or Plough) asterism in the constellation of Ursa Major. Binary Stars in the Big Dipper Constellation Mizar and Alcor in constellation Ursa Major
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