The star has an orange hue and is visible to the naked eye at night with an apparent visual magnitude of 3.72.

[2] It is located at a distance of approximately 198 light-years from the Sun based on parallax,[1] but is drifting closer with a radial velocity of −9 km/s.

It bore the traditional name Tai Yang Show, "the Sun Governor", from Chinese astronomy.

[10] Chi Ursae Majoris is an evolved, orange hued K-type giant with a stellar classification of K0.5 IIIb.

[4] It is a red clump giant,[3] which means it is on the horizontal branch and is generating energy through helium fusion at its core.