Mirfak
HR 1017 · HIP 15863 · α Per
👁️ Naked-eye
📋 A written introduction is coming — for now this page shows official values only.
Star
- Apparent magnitude
- 1.79 mag
- Parallax
- 6.44 mas → about 506.5 light-years away
- Spectral type
- F5Ib
- Right ascension
- 51.0807°
- Declination
- 49.8612°
- Designation
- HR 1017
- Bayer designation
- α Per
- HIP number
- 15863
- IAU name adopted
- 2016-07-20
- Name language
- Arabic
- Name origin (IAU)
- Applied in recent times from an abbreviation of its pre-Islamic Arabian name mirfaq al-thurayya, "the Elbow of the Pleiades," for its location in the pre-Islamic Arabian asterism here.
Source:IAU Working Group on Star Names · checked 2026-11-02 ↗ESA Hipparcos Catalogue (ESA Gaia Archive) · checked 2026-11-03 ↗
Related
Constellation
In everyday life
- Light from this object takes about 506 years to reach Earth — the light you see tonight left around AD 1520 (official distance ÷ speed of light).
- At magnitude 1.8 it is bright enough for the naked eye (limit about 6) — look from somewhere dark.
- Declination 49.9° — 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.