Double star Mizar

[yoda]

Hi all

I was looking at Mizar the double star two nights ago and decided to have a look at it on stellarium and zoom in,now I noticed the name the main star is (Mizar (ζ um a)-Hip 65378 a) and the second is (Mizar (ζ um a)-Hip 65378 c).

Now surely the second star shoud be the β Beta star.

Dose anybody know why this is, its just something that's been bugging me all the best.

[acey]

Beta Ursae Majoris is Merak (one of the two pointer stars that point to Polaris). Mizar's naked-eye partner Alcor is 80 Ursae Majoris. The components of the Mizar system are Mizar A and Mizar B, so they can be denoted Zeta UMa-A and Zeta UMa-B. And both of those are, I believe, spectroscopic binaries, hence the C you mention.

[yoda]

Hi acey if you go on stellarium it gives the names I gave do you know why this is. Thank's alot matey.

[acey]

Oh, I get it - you're saying that Stellarium has Zeta UMa-a for both stars when the second should be Zeta UMa-b. I guess it shows you can't always trust Stellarium. As others have noted on this forum, there are a few stars plotted on it that don't even exist.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I dont know. Its all Greek to me.

[Doug]

Hi

I was watching Sky at Night and they said it has several stars there and the two you see are binary stars

Doug

Essex