Arabic star names / Mirfak
Mirfak
مرفق الثريا
Mirfak comes from the Arabic مرفق الثريا (Mirfaq al-Thurayyā), which means “the elbow of the Pleiades”. It is the 35th-brightest star in the sky, in Perseus.
- Brightness
- 1.79
- Colour
- yellow-white
- Constellation
- Perseus
- Best seen
- December evenings
- Right ascension
- 3h 24m
- Declination
- +49° 52′
The name
In an old Arab picture of the sky, the Pleiades were a hand stretched across it, and this star was its elbow.
Where you can see it
It rises everywhere north of 40°S. From Riyadh it climbs to 65° above the horizon. From London it climbs to 88° above the horizon. From Sydney it climbs to 6° above the horizon.
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