It is northeast of the Great Square of Pegasus and is potentially visible to all observers north of latitude 54° S. It is commonly used by stargazers to find the Andromeda Galaxy.

It is radiating 1,675 times the luminosity of the Sun at an effective temperature of 3,802 K.[5] Beta Andromedae is the star's Bayer designation.

(the name is spelled Merach in Burritt's The Geography of the Heavens),[21] which come from the star's description in the Alfonsine Tables of 1521 as super mizar.

[25] Medieval astronomers writing in Arabic called Mirach Janb al-Musalsalah (English: The Side of the Chained (Lady)); it was part of the 28th manzil (Arabian lunar mansion) Baṭn al-Ḥūt, the Belly of the Fish, or Qalb al-Ḥūt, the Heart of the Fish.

Consequently, the Chinese name for β Andromedae itself is 奎宿九 (Kuí Sù jiǔ, English: the Ninth Star of Legs).

[30] A 2023 study detected radial velocity variations in Mirach (HD 6860), showing evidence of a substellar companion, likely a brown dwarf.