1. By: Jocelyn Miller

3.  One of the most famous pointer stars that point to the North Star!  Constellation is ursa major  Merek or Mirak is from Al Marrak, the loin of a bear!

4. Type of Star: White Main Sequence How Far Away: 62 light years away How Bright: About 50 times brighter than the Sun Where to View: In the constellation Ursa Major. When to View:All year round in the Northern Hemisphere

5. Merak is a white A1V main sequence star almost 60 times as luminous as the sun. The spectral type implies a mass about three times that of the sun, a diameter more than twice that of the sun, and an effective temperature of 9600 K. According to Burnham, Merak is part of a star cluster including at least 16 other stars from the Ursa Major area of the sky, as well as Mizar, Alioth, Alcor, Phecda, and Megrez in the Big Dipper. The Ursa Major cluster represents an ellipsoidal volume of space about 30 ly long by 18 ly in width.A1V main sequence starluminousBurnhamMizarAliothAlcor PhecdaMegrezly http://domeofthesky.com/clicks/merak.html

6. Ursa Major, the Greater Bear is the third largest constellation in the sky. What is more familiar however, are the seven stars which make up the rump and tail of this animal. We know them as the Big Dipper, in the United Kingdom, they are known as the Plough. Many people mistakenly think that the Big Dipper is a constellation but it isn't, it is something called an asterism. An asterism is a small easily recognizable formation of stars that is usually part of a larger constellation. In this case, the Big Dipper is part of the constellation Ursa Major..

7. Map of the sky!

8. Alpha (Dubhe) and beta (this star Merak) were the Keepers, or the Pointers, at the front of the "Dipper Bowl" in Ursa Major; a line extending through these two will direct the observer to Polaris, the North Star.DubhePolaris It is one of the "The Plough", also called "the Big Dipper" stars, an asterism in the back of the Bear, outlined by the stars; Merak (this star beta), Dubhe (alpha),Phecda (gamma) and Megrez (delta) on the body of the Bear, along with the three star of the tail; epsilon (Alioth), zeta (Mizar), and eta (Alkaid). The asterism was also seen as a Dipper or Ladle with the three stars in the tail forming the handle. In early Arabic astronomy the four plough stars on the body of the bear constituted the coffin or bier surrounded by mourners (the three stars in the tail) of Al Na'ash, who was murdered by Al Jadi, the pole-star (Polaris), and this constellation was seen as a funeral procession, attributing this title to the slow and solemn motion of the figure around the pole. The Big Dipper has been seen by various cultures as a plough, an ox cart, a wagon, it was known as Charlie's Wain in northern Europe. To the Hindus the four stars of the plough and the three stars in the tail was Sapta Rishi "The seven Wise Men." These seven stars (septentriones, from the phrase septem triones, meaning "seven plough oxen") are the origin of the Latin word septentriones meaning "north".DubhePhecdaMegrezAliothMizarAlkaidPolaris

9. Merak is the fifth brightest star in the Great Bear constellation, even though Astronomer Bayer in his classification gave the second place to the star by allotting the Greek letter Beta. Merak is a lot like our sun just older! A third magnitude star in brightness in the scale of at 2.3, Merak is located in Right Ascension (Celestial Longitude) 11 hour 2 minutes and 27 seconds and Declination (Celestial Latitude) 56 degree 19 minutes and 41 seconds. Merak has surface temperature of 9,600 Kelvin and is about 70 times luminous than the Sun. It is about 70 light years away and about 3 times the size of the Sun. It is fairly a northern star and is moving away from earth at a speed of 7.5 miles per second. Merak is known for various features: 1. As a Pointing star: 2. As a star with a Disk: http://cosmicgems.blogspot.com/2010/02/me rak-star-that-girds-up-your-loin.html