Star profile

Mekbuda

Zeta Geminorum · Gemini

Variable star

3D likeness based on its real data · class G · ~5,500 K

What is Mekbuda

Mekbuda is one of the most celebrated variable stars in the sky: a yellow G-type supergiant 1,376 light-years away whose brightness rises and falls with a regular ten-day pulse. It belongs to the Cepheid family, those cosmic beacons whose cadence revealed to Henrietta Leavitt how to measure distances between galaxies. Its name, from the Arabic «Al-Maqbūḑa», means «the drawn-in hand» of the Twins. Beat after beat, it keeps time for an expanding universe.

Where it is and when to see it

Mekbuda lies in the northern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is January: the Sun sits at the opposite point of the sky and the star culminates around midnight. How high it climbs above the horizon depends on the latitude you watch from.

Find it on the sky map

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The signature wall

Stelvia's sky works like a signature wall: anyone can leave their name and a message on a real star, and that signature goes up on the map for everyone to read. Signing is free.

A signature without a lock can be replaced by someone else's. The lock makes the signature permanent and lets you choose a symbolic name for the star, always shown next to the star's catalogue identifier. How the lock works

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Write my signature

A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.

Astronomical data for Mekbuda

Constellation: Gemini
Apparent magnitude: 4.01
Distance: 1376.4 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 106.027° · Dec 20.570°
Catalogue: HIP 34088 · HD 52973

A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.

Other stars in Gemini

Gemini has 74 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 74 stars in Gemini