This is an article about the star, for other uses please see Mizar Mizar (? UMa) is a star in the constellation Ursa Major and is the second star from the end of the Big Dipper's handle. The name comes from the Arabic ???? mi'zar, meaning a waistband or girdle. Mizar has apparent magnitude 2.27 and spectral class A1 V. With good eyesight one can make out a faint companion just to the east, called Alcor or 80 Ursae Majoris. Alcor has magnitude 3.99 and spectral class A5 V. The two are often called the horse and rider, and the ability to see the second is a traditional test of eyesight. The two stars lie more than a quarter of a light year apart and although proper motions show they move together, it is still not known whether they form a true binary star system, and not an optical binary as currently thought. More compon

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