Mirach

HR 337 · HIP 5447 · β And

👁️ Naked-eye

📋 A written introduction is coming — for now this page shows official values only.

Star

Apparent magnitude: 2.05 mag
Parallax: 16.52 mas → about 197.4 light-years away
Spectral type: M0IIIvar
Right ascension: 17.433°
Declination: 35.6206°
Designation: HR 337
Bayer designation: β And
HIP number: 5447
IAU name adopted: 2016-06-30
Name language: Arabic
Name origin (IAU): Ultimately from the Arabic word al-mi)zar, "the girdle" or "loin cloth", used in the Arabic Almagest in describing this star. The correct transliteration of the word in the Medieval Latin Almagest was mizar, which was occasionally misspelled as mirac, mirat, etc. These corruptions, taken as proper names for β And, were correctly attributed to al-mi)zar by Early Modern scholars. Subsequently one of the misspellings, "Mirach", gained more popularity over the correct "Mizar", to beome the preferred modern name.

Constellation

Light from this object takes about 197 years to reach Earth — the light you see tonight left around AD 1829 (official distance ÷ speed of light).
At magnitude 2.1 it is bright enough for the naked eye (limit about 6) — look from somewhere dark.
Declination 35.6° — it rises above the horizon in Seoul (37.6° N), so it is visible from Korea in the right season.

Worked out from this object's official values.