Ephemeris: 05/17/2024 – The famous Big Dipper stars Mizar and Alcor

This is Ephemeris for Friday, May 17th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 55 minutes, setting at 9:07, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:10. The Moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 4:01 tomorrow morning.

In tonight’s sky, the Big Dipper is nearly overhead. In its handle is a star or two that are interesting. It’s the star at the bend in the handle. It’s called Mizar. Next to it, for those with good eyesight, is a dimmer star, called Alcor. The name Mizar is from the Arabic, meaning apron or cover, while Alcor means the forgotten one. Before optometrists, the ability to actually see both stars was a test for good eyesight, especially for Arabic warriors. The pair is also known as the “Horse and the Rider”. I’ve been told that some Native American tribes saw the handle stars as hunters following the Great Bear, Ursa Major, of which the Big Dipper is a part, rather than its very unnatural tail. Dim Alcor became a hunting dog.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EDT, UT–4 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Mizar and Alcor in the Big Dipper as it is nearly overhead towards the north. Click or tap on the image to enlarge it. Created using Stellarium.

A view of Mizar and Alcor as seen in a telescope. Mizar is itself a binary star. In actuality both components of Mizar and Alcor are spectroscopic binaries, which are too close to split, but their presence is detected by their Doppler motions with spectrographs. Created using Stellarium.