Astronomy Without a Telescope
- Kochab (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
KOCHAB (Beta Ursae Minoris). Kochab, an obscure Arabic name that might simply mean “star,” is just barely the second brightest and thus appropriately the Beta star in Ursa Minor, the Smaller Bear, and represents the top front bowl star of the Little Dipper.
- Beta Ursae Minoris (Wikipedia)
Kochab /ˈkoʊkæb/, Bayer designation Beta Ursae Minoris (β Ursae Minoris, abbreviated β UMi, Beta UMi), is the brightest star in the bowl of the Little Dipper asterism (which is part of the constellation of Ursa Minor)), and only slightly fainter than Polaris, the northern pole star and brightest star in Ursa Minor. Kochab is 16 degrees from Polaris and has an apparent visual magnitude of 2.08. The distance to this star from the Sun can be deduced from the parallax measurements made during the Hipparcos mission, yielding a value of 130.9 light-years (40.1 parsecs).
