Sidus Ludoviciana

Sidus Ludoviciana is an 8th-magnitude star in the asterism of the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major, halfway between Mizar and Alcor. It was discovered on 2 December 1722 by Johann Georg Liebknecht, who mistook it for a planet and named it after Louis V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. A line-of-sight companion with Mizar and Alcor (with a spectral type similar to the latter), it is roughly five times more distant. It has the spectral type A8/F0 III.