{"id":542422,"date":"2026-07-10T08:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T08:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542422\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T08:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T08:31:12","slug":"the-sky-today-on-friday-july-10-meet-mizar-and-alcor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/542422\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on\u00a0Friday, July 10: Meet Mizar and Alcor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tFamous double stars Mizar and Alcor in the handle of the Big Dipper are a visual challenge with the naked eye \u2014 can you split them?\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1224\" height=\"907\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/07102026.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Sky chart showing the northern sky on July 10, 2026, at 11 p.m. The double star Mizar and its companion Alcor are labeled near the upper center of the frame, part of the Big Dipper's handle. A dark, rolling horizon is visible at the bottom.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tLook closely at the \u201ckink\u201d in the Big Dipper\u2019s handle \u2014 can you make out two stars there, close together? These are Alcor and Mizar. If you can\u2019t quite see them with the naked eye, you will easily separate them in any optics. Credit: Stellarium\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-this-week-from-july-3-to-10-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">July 9: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-today-thursday-july-9-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Venus stands above Regulus<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">Look north after dark tonight to spot one of the most famous asterisms in the sky: the Big Dipper. Late tonight, it lies to the lower left of the North Star, Polaris, with its cup below the curving handle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That handle is where we\u2019re looking tonight \u2014 specifically, the spot where the handle is kinked and changes direction, at the second star from the end. Look at this star \u2014 Mizar \u2014 closely. Do you see one star, or two? You may notice a small, faint star just to Mizar\u2019s upper right (southeast): this is Alcor. Glowing at magnitude 4.0, Alcor is much fainter than magnitude 2.2 Mizar, but sits 11.8\u2032 away, far enough to make out with the naked eye from a dark site and if your visual acuity is good. And because they are so widely separated, they will easily split into two in any optics, including binoculars or any size telescope.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This lovely pair is likely not physically bound, however, but is part of a loose cluster of stars all moving together through space, called the Ursa Major Moving Group. Also in that group are Merak, Phecda, and Megrez in the Big Dipper, as well as many more not part of this specific star pattern.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sunrise:\u00a05:41 A.M.<br \/>Sunset:\u00a08:30 P.M.<br \/>Moonrise:\u00a01:31 A.M.<br \/>Moonset:\u00a05:01 P.M.<br \/>Moon Phase:\u00a0Waning crescent (16%)<br \/>*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alison Klesman\u00a0is senior editor of\u00a0Astronomy\u00a0magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List Famous double stars Mizar and Alcor in the handle of the Big Dipper are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,7882,82,44123],"class_list":["post-542422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}