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, when it culminates around midnight.

From London it culminates about 59° above the horizon.
From New York it culminates about 70° above the horizon.
From Sydney it culminates about 36° above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere north of 69° S.

It ranks no. 14 in brightness among the 74 stars of Gemini in our catalogue. To find it, start from Pollux, the brightest: it lies about 12° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 1,400 years ago.

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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

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Other stars in Gemini

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

See all 74 stars in Gemini