Mizar

American  

[mahy-zahr] / ˈmaɪ zɑr /

noun

Astronomy.

1. a double star in the middle of the constellation Ursa Major.

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Mizar British  

/ ˈmaɪzɑː /

noun

1. a multiple star having four components that lies in the Plough in the constellation Ursa Major and forms a visible binary with the star Alcor. Visual magnitude: 2.1; spectral type: A2V

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Etymology

Origin of Mizar

From the Arabic word miʾzar literally, apron

Example Sentences

And a smaller quibble: movie also purports in an early scene to show the double star Mizar and Alcor, but the photograph on screen is not of them.

From Salon • May 6, 2023

Mizar is the second star from the outside, on the Big Dipper’s handle, and hiding behind it is its buddy Alcor.

From New York Times • Oct. 29, 2020

The fainter star, Alcor, is about 12 arcmin from Mizar.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

In the 1970s, Henry Smolinski of Oxnard grabbed a Cessna Skymaster wing and attached it to a Ford Pinto and called it the Mizar.

From Chicago Tribune • Apr. 20, 2012

Double-star photography was inaugurated under the auspices of G. P. Bond, April 27, 1857, with an impression, obtained in eight seconds, of Mizar, the middle star in the handle of the Plough.

From A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century Fourth Edition by Clerke, Agnes M. (Agnes Mary)