{"id":28785,"date":"2022-01-28T10:03:44","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T10:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=104047"},"modified":"2022-01-28T10:19:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T10:19:14","slug":"see-star-mirzam-in-the-constellation-canis-major-in-february-2022","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/see-star-mirzam-in-the-constellation-canis-major-in-february-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"See star Mirzam in the constellation Canis Major in February 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Pete Lawrence\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 28 January 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Mirzam is the fourth brightest star in Canis Major, the Great Dog, and makes for a quick and easy star hop<\/a> once you\u2019ve found Sirius in the night sky.<\/p>\n

Although Mirzam (Beta (\u03b2)<\/span> Canis Majoris), shines at mag. +2.0, it\u2019s outshone by its sky neighbour, mag. \u20131.5 Sirius (Alpha (\u03b1)<\/span> Canis Majoris).<\/p>\n

Mirzam lies 5.5\u02da west and a bit south of Sirius and is easy to identify for this reason.<\/span><\/p>\n

Its name <\/span>is derived from the Arabic term meaning \u2018The Herald\u2019, thought to refer to the fact that it rises just before Sirius, so heralding or announcing the appearance of its neighbour.<\/p>\n

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You can find Canis Major near the constellations Lepus and Columba. Credit: CEDIC Team + Bernhard Hubl \/ CCDGuide.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Sirius may appear to dominate over Mirzam in terms of brightness \u2013 indeed, it\u2019s the brightest star in the night sky<\/a> \u2013 but the pair are an example of how the apparent sky we see is deceptive.<\/p>\n

Sirius is located 8.7 lightyears away from the Sun. Mirzam is a more distant star, estimated to be 490 lightyears away.<\/p>\n

Although Sirius appears to be 24 times brighter to us in the sky, Mirzam is 56 times further away.<\/p>\n

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Credit: Rolf L\u00f6hr \/ CCDGuide.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

If you were to place them at a standard distance of 10 parsecs, or 32.62 lightyears, Sirius would have an absolute magnitude of +1.4 while Mirzam would appear at mag. \u20134.1, similar to how bright Venus<\/a> appears from Earth.<\/p>\n

If you were to place Mirzam at the distance of Sirius, it would shine 15 times brighter than Venus appears to us!<\/p>\n

Mirzam has a spectral type of B1 II-III, a hot, blue, bright giant star (for more on this, read our guide to the colour of stars<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Its temperature has been measured at 25,527\u02daC, which means that a lot of its radiative output is in the spectrum\u2019s ultraviolet part.<\/p>\n

By comparison, it\u2019s 14 times more massive, 10 times larger and has a luminosity around 26,600 times larger than the Sun.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a variable star<\/a>, the brightest member of the Beta Cephei class of variables.<\/p>\n

This guide originally appeared in the February 2022 issue of <\/strong><\/em>BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n

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By Pete Lawrence Published: Friday, 28 January 2022 at 12:00 am Mirzam is the fourth brightest star in Canis Major, the Great Dog, and makes for a quick and easy star hop once you\u2019ve found Sirius in the night sky. Although Mirzam (Beta (\u03b2) Canis Majoris), shines at mag. +2.0, it\u2019s outshone by its sky […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":28786,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/see-star-mirzam-in-the-constellation-canis-major-in-february-2022.jpg",1200,877,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/see-star-mirzam-in-the-constellation-canis-major-in-february-2022-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/see-star-mirzam-in-the-constellation-canis-major-in-february-2022-300x219.jpg",300,219,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/see-star-mirzam-in-the-constellation-canis-major-in-february-2022-768x561.jpg",768,561,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/see-star-mirzam-in-the-constellation-canis-major-in-february-2022-1024x748.jpg",800,584,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/see-star-mirzam-in-the-constellation-canis-major-in-february-2022.jpg",1200,877,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2022\/01\/see-star-mirzam-in-the-constellation-canis-major-in-february-2022.jpg",1200,877,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Pete Lawrence Published: Friday, 28 January 2022 at 12:00 am Mirzam is the fourth brightest star in Canis Major, the Great Dog, and makes for a quick and easy star hop once you\u2019ve found Sirius in the night sky. Although Mirzam (Beta (\u03b2) Canis Majoris), shines at mag. +2.0, it\u2019s outshone by its sky…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/28785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}