Mirfak

Its story

Mirfak rules Perseus from 506 light-years away, a luminous yellow class-F giant whose brilliance lights up an entire young stellar association around it. Its name comes from the Arabic «Mirfaq al-Thurayya», the elbow of the Pleiades, marking the exact spot where the hero raises his arm in the old sky-drawing. The light reaching us tonight left its atmosphere while Philip II was finishing the Escorial.