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

So, Mizar is really a quadruple system of stars.

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

Fifty miles down, the sun glinted from the three thousand foot globes of the two transport-cruisers, Canopus and Mizar.

From A Slave is a Slave by Piper, H. Beam